A World I Never Knew Existed
by FreyasWrath
Summary: Derek and Simon have moved again and are now going to the same school as Chloe. After their dad disappears and Chloe see's her first ghost they decide it's best to let Chloe know about the world they live in before someone gets hurt. Sort of AU.
1. Opinions

**Alright so I got really tired of having this first chapter of my newest idea floating around in my head, taunting me, asking when the eff I was going to type it and show it to you all. So here, I'm making my brain happy.**

**It's in three different points of view, starting with Simon, then Chloe and finishing with Derek. (It's all the same thing just from different people's points of view.)**

**The classes at my school are divided by grade and whether the student is in honors or merit so that's how Simon ends up in one of Chloe's classes. (Just in case anyone is curious.) In my mind this school looks like my old school, before they decided to tear it down and put in a place that reminds me of some overly sanitary insane asylum. **

**Some of it going to seem a lot like The Summoning to start with but, it's going to be different since Derek and Simon are there from the start. Their dad will go missing about a week after they get to this school, and Derek still broke that kids back, but their dad came to pick them up and they got away or whatever. Hopefully you guys can make the same connections my wacked out brain has. (In my head this story makes sense. When I write it out though, I'm not sure it will.)**

**Hope you guys like it.**

**Disclaimer: The world knows I don't own Darkest Powers, why must I repeat that!**

**Opinions**

**Simon POV**

Another new school. This would be the eleventh one now. The eleventh time I've had to make friends. The eleventh time I've had to get used to new classes, had to have try outs for sports, had to meet new girls. No real complaint there, but I left a great girl behind last time and I couldn't give her an explanation as to why we upped and left.

This running all the time is irritating to me. Of course Derek doesn't mind. He never cares. No offense to him. I mean he's my brother and my best friend but he doesn't try to make friends or anything so he doesn't ever have anything or anyone to leave behind.

Dad was talking to our wonderful new principal and an administrator, something about our schedules and a whole bunch of other school related crap. It's always the same thing, just different faces.

My internal tirade was interrupted by a door banging closed down the hall. I turned to see a blond girl with red streaks in her hair, coming out of what I guessed was a bathroom. She looked down the hall at us and I smiled at her. She timidly smiled back before disappearing into the classroom across the hall.

"Okay, if you two would follow me, I can show you to your first period classes." The woman standing with the principle said. I didn't know her name. I wasn't really paying attention to any of them while they were talking.

Dad said his goodbyes and left us in the newest edition to our ever expanding list of schools.

The woman led us down the hall to the same classroom I saw the blond girl go in. "This is your first period class Simon. Geometry."

Fun.

She handed me a few papers; my schedule, a map, a slip of paper that had my guidance counselors name on it and what lunch shift I had, and the pass I was supposed to give to this teacher.

I turned to Derek. "See you later bro."

He just nodded. He seemed a little distracted.

The teacher, Mr. Copan, took my pass, informed his class of my name and told me to find an empty seat. I sat behind the girl I saw earlier. I found out her name was Chloe when the teacher called on her.

**Chloe POV**

I walked up to Mr. Copan's desk and asked for a pass to the bathroom. Of course he gave me one without thinking. Any excuse to get us bothersome children out of his classroom. Even though I don't really fall under the category of annoying child, I'm in a class with misbehaving students in it so I must be one too. Yeah…right.

I heard a couple people talking when I stepped outside the class and before I went into the bathroom I glanced at them. Our principle, Mr. Hahn, and an administrator, Mrs. Duffey, I think that's her name, were standing with two grown men and one smaller blond guy.

I hurried into the bathroom before one of them came and asked me for my pass.

I was looking at my hair in the mirror, Liz was right, red streaks did look good. Then I heard a noise, something like a moan that turned to a whimper. I thought I was the only person in this bathroom and a quick inspection below the stall doors proved that I was right. I ran to the bathroom door and yanked it open.

Stepping into the hall, I took a deep breath, settling my frayed nerves. I was acting like I hadn't heard anything when I looked back down the hall again. The blond guy was looking at me, smiling. I shyly smiled back and hurried back to my class.

A couple minutes later that same guy was standing outside my class with Mrs. Duffey and one of the other guys, who I had presumed was a grown man. But a closer inspection of him through the small window on the door told me that he wasn't a grown man, just a really big teen. His face was covered in acne and his dull black hair hung close to his surprisingly amazing emerald green eyes.

The blond stepped into the room and I caught a glimpse of how big this guy still standing outside really was.

When he turned his emerald gaze on my, I realized I was staring. I'm sure my face was turning a bright red, red enough that a tomato would envy me at the moment.

I glanced at him one more time before he walked away, shaking his head.

I turned my attention back to my class in time to hear the blond guys name was Simon.

**Derek POV**

Another new town. Another new school. Another place to hide for while.

And it's all my fault.

I blinked hard and shook my head in a poor attempt to clear my brain of that memory.

A door opening down the hall caught my attention and I glanced over to see a small blond girl walking quickly to what I was assuming was the bathroom.

I turned my attention back to the conversation my dad was having with Mr. Hahn and Mrs. Duffey. The principle and an administrator.

"So you're sure that these classes are going to be challenging enough for Derek?" My dad asked the principle.

He nodded and started talking about how I had been placed in AP classes for everything except English. But with that I was placed in honors, which wasn't much different.

The bathroom door opened again and the blond started walking back across the hall to her class. When she glanced over Simon smiled and she smiled back. Typical girl reaction to him, of course.

Not that it really mattered to me.

The last thing I noticed about that girl before she disappeared into her class was the red streaks in her hair.

"Okay." Mrs. Duffey started. "If you two would follow me, I can show you to your first period classes."

Dad said his goodbyes and we followed Mrs. Duffey to Simon's first class.

She handed him a few papers with important information on them and explained a couple things on the papers.

I looked into his class and saw that same girl. I glanced away, pretending like I hadn't been looking in at her. There was something about her, I don't know why but she was intriguing. I didn't even know who she was but…there was just something about her…

Simon turned to me. "See you later bro."

I nodded, distracted.

I looked into the class again when Simon opened the door. The girl was sitting, looking at me. When she realized I knew she was looking her face turned a deep red, making her blue eyes stand out.

"Now Derek, if you'll follow me." Mrs. Duffey said. She didn't wait for me to respond, just walked ahead to my class, College Algebra with Trig. I have a feeling she was trying to get away from me.

I followed, shaking my head again trying, and failing, to clear things away from my mind.

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**Sorry this may seem a bit repetitive; I just wanted to get everyone's takes on this little itty bitty situation.**

**I really hope you guys like it.**

**So tell me, should I continue or am I just wasting my time?**

**Reviewers are AWESOME SAUCE! (That's a good thing.) Don't you want to be awesome sauce? Press that 'lil green button and you will be!**

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	2. Lunch

**A huge thanks to those who reviewed (you people are awesome sauce), favorited or set up a story alert for my story. You guys are the reason I am continuing to write for this.**

**The story may seem a little slow for a few chapters but after Derek and Simon's dad disappears things will start to pick up.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers, oh no I don't don't don't.**

**Lunch**

**Chloe POV**

I trudged through first and second period. Geometry wasn't that bad because of the new kid, Simon.

Mr. Copan gave up teaching about twenty minutes before the bell rang. Half the class wasn't listening anyway, and then everyone else was talking or throwing something so he figured there was no point in teaching if no one was paying attention. Of course I was paying attention, so I got screwed over in the math department once again.

But for that last twenty minutes Simon showed me a few drawings and things he'd been working on. They were really good.

"I bet you get a really good grade in art."

He shook his head. "Only on assignments where we can draw whatever we want. Most of the time teachers think that my drawing don't fit into whatever technique they're trying to teach us so they only give me like a D for whatever I drew."

"Oh. Well that sucks."

"Yep. Hey, what's your schedule and when do you have lunch?"

"I've got first lunch, it's right after second period. And I've got Government second period, English nine third period and Biology fourth period."

He pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket and looked at it. "Damn. Well we don't have anymore classes together but I have first lunch too."

"Cool."

"Yeah. I'll have to see what Derek has." He said pulling his phone out his pocket.

"Derek?"

"My brother."

"Wait, was that the big guy standing outside the class when you came in?"

He nodded.

"He's your brother?" I asked surprised.

Another nod and then a smile.

"Sweet, he has the same lunch as us. We aren't related by blood."

"I figured as much."

"You should come sit with us and meet him, he doesn't talk much to people he doesn't know though."

"Maybe I'll come over and visit then, just to say hi."

"Awesome. Then I can introduce you two."

"His name's Derek, right?"

"Yeah. Any chance you can show me where my other classes are?"

"Yeah."

I stood up to go ask Mr. Copan if I could show Simon to his classes. Of course he didn't have a problem with it, seeing how he wasn't doing anything but reading a magazine now.

I went back to my desk and grabbed my stuff. "Come on, I'm showing you where they are now."

"Great." He said grabbing his backpack and following me out of the class.

After I made sure that Simon could find his was to his classes, Modern World History, Chemistry and English ten, I went to wait by my Government classroom door.

For the next hour and a half I was ready to fall asleep, all we were doing in Government today was watching a video. Which for me and about half the class meant nap time.

When the bell rang I pretty much ran from the class. When I made it to the cafeteria, or dining hall as the teachers and every other adult in the school liked to call it, Rae, Tori and Liz were already at our table.

"Hey, Chloe" Liz exclaimed as I sat down with them.

"Hey." Rae said.

Tori didn't say anything. I honestly think that the only reason she sits with us is because she's good friends with Liz. That would have to be the reason, because she's always fighting with Rae and she never talks to me.

"Oh, cute guy coming our way." Liz said trying to hide the fact that she was pointing to someone behind me.

I turned to find Simon making his was over to our table. He waved at me.

"You know him?" Tori asked. I was shocked, no mean remark from her this time.

I nodded in response to her question.

"Hey Chloe, you coming to sit with me and Derek?"

I glanced back at my friends. Tori was excluded from the friends part, but she was glaring at me, Liz smiled and Rae waved at me, telling me to go.

"Yeah." I said grabbing my bag. "See you guys later."

"I think Derek took a table somewhere over here." Simon said leading me to the back of the cafeteria.

They were literally at the table in the back of the cafeteria, the last one. There weren't even enough people in our lunch shift to fill the tables close to us. So we were seriously alone back here.

"Derek, this is Chloe. Chloe, Derek" Simon said introducing us.

Derek looked up at me then quickly looked away. Jeez, I know I'm not so great looking that people stare but I'm not so gross that people are afraid to look.

"You kiddies play nice." Simon said digging money out of his pocket and heading for the lunch line.

I sat down across from Derek. He didn't say anything.

I leaned back in my chair, a little uncomfortable by the silence.

Derek looked at me again, this time holding his gaze on me.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked a little confused as to why he was staring.

He continued to stare.

"If you took a picture you could stare at that." And stop making me so uncomfortable.

He mumbled something but I couldn't understand what then leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms over his chest and looked past me to the lunch line.

Great…I just made this even more awkward.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

It was a text from Liz asking where I was sitting. I looked back in the direction of our table and saw her jumping up and down, trying to find where I was.

Back of the cafeteria, I replied.

When she saw me she waved then texted back, asking who I was sitting with.

I responded with one word. Derek.

When she asked who that was I said I would explain later.

"So…" Simon said sitting next to Derek. "Did you two get along?"

Derek glanced at his brother but didn't say anything. I shrugged.

"Nice to know Derek's being sociable." He sighed. "Anyway, how was your second period Chloe?"

"Great. I was tempted to take a nap. How about you? How was Modern World?"

"Boring. What made you want to sleep?"

"A movie we were watching."

"What, you don't like movies?"

"Actually, I love movies. Just the education aspect of some of them is pretty boring."

For the last fifteen minutes of lunch Simon and I talked about movies, school and whatever else came to mind. And Derek? Derek didn't say or do anything other than eat his lunch and look around the cafeteria.

I have third period with Rae, so when I walked into the class I was bombarded with questions from her. The first was, of course, about Derek.

"So, who's Derek?"

"Simon's brother."

She sputtered. "Brother?"

"Yep. They aren't blood related though."

"I would hope not, if they were something went seriously wrong with his genes. So Simon is the blond guy who came to steal you from us today?" Rae asked pulling her binder out of her backpack.

I laughed. "Yes, to everything you just said."

Our teacher, Mrs. Taylor, let us work in partners for our warm up, some grammar assignment I didn't feel like doing, but did anyway so I wouldn't fail.

"So, what's that Derek guy like?" Rae asked starting to draw flames on the top of her paper.

"Um, well…he doesn't talk much and he was staring at me when I first sat down."

"Oh! Why? Tell me."

"There's nothing to tell because I honestly have no reason why he was staring."

"He was captivated by your beauty." Rae said in a high pitched voice. Then we started laughing.

When we finally calmed down Rae spoke again. "That's weird though."

"Yeah, I know. I told him to take a picture and stare at that."

"Oh wow. I'm not even going to say anything about that."

I just stared at her.

"Anyway, what's that Simon guy like?"

"He's pretty cool. Talks a lot if you give him something to talk about."

"Cool. Cool. You should go out with him. That would really piss Tori off."

"First off why do you like irritating Tori and second what makes you think he would date me?"

"I don't like irritating Tori. She likes to make fun of me so I figure it's only fair. And I just think he would." She said drawing more flames down the side of her paper.

"Uh-huh. Whatever."

"What?" she exclaimed.

"So my dating history doesn't have a place in this conversation?"

"What dating history?"

"Exactly." I said writing the last answer down on my paper.

**Hope you guys liked it. Thanks for reading, give me reviews and I get past all the boring crap, that may be important for story telling but like I said is boring, and give you guys the good stuff.**

**(=^_^=)**


	3. Disappearances

**So this is the long awaited chapter three. (Well, I've been waiting a while to get it written…)**

**Anyways, hope you guys like it. It starts in fourth period on the same day as the other two chapters. (By the way, that day is a Monday. I don't know if I mentioned what day it was before.) Enjoy?**

**Disclaimer: Oh my hector, we already know I don't own Darkest Powers.**

**Disappearances**

**Chloe POV**

Liz failed biology last year. She wasn't in school enough the semester she had it to be able to get all her work done and turned in on time to pass. That's sad for her, but this year we are in the same biology class.

Today we were working on a lab, Liz and I were in different groups and from the looks of things Liz was the only one doing the work in her group. The other two girls were just talking like they didn't have a lab to do, or any other care in the world for that matter. Liz didn't look too happy about having to do all the work.

She called the teacher, Ms. Kenyon, over for help but she didn't really help Liz out at all. Just repeatedly told her what she was supposed to be doing, making it sound like Liz was stupid, which she definitely is not.

After a few minutes of struggling with the lab, a couple of glass beakers started rattling then they slid across the table and became airborne, flying at Ms. Kenyon. Thankfully she moved before they hit her head.

The beakers smashed into the wall, glass shattering and falling to the floor and the liquid in the beakers was now dripping down the wall. I'm just glad we weren't working with anything dangerous.

"Elizabeth!" Ms. Kenyon shrieked. "Office! Now!"

"But. But-" Liz stammered, trying to find an explanation to what just happened.

"Now! I will not tolerate my students throwing anything, especially when that something is glass or when they are throwing something at me. Now, get out!"

Liz grabbed her bag and left the classroom trembling. I guess she was a freaked out as I was, maybe more.

What was bothering me about the whole situation was that I was watching Liz and our teacher the entire time and Liz _never _threw anything at her. She wasn't even touching the beakers right before they flew off the table.

So, how could they have just sailed off the table and tried to hit the teacher on their own?

It didn't make sense.

While the rest of the class went on with what they were doing, I sat wondering what happened with Liz.

For the next few days, Liz wasn't in school and all my classes except first period dragged on because I couldn't stop thinking about what really happened in bio. If it wasn't for Simon, first would have been bad too. He was making an effort to try to get me to feel better and still trying to empathize with me, since he didn't know Liz but didn't want me to feel alone or upset.

And lunch was…okay, I guess. Tori was practically a zombie, she seemed completely and utterly lost without Liz. But Simon tried to make us all semi happy again. I appreciated that.

After Liz's incident Rae and Tori moved over to Derek and Simon's table at lunch with me. It was better than having us split up and keeping Tori around Rae, since I know they would fight without me around. And since I spent half of lunch with them and half with Derek and Simon, I figured that we could all just sit together and stop World War three before it begins.

Tori sat close to Simon and Simon did his best to move away without her noticing. She seemed to have an unnatural attraction to him. Not that any other girl wouldn't find him attractive either. He was definitely the cute one of the family. Derek only had his emerald green eyes…that I would sometimes find myself staring at. And when he would turn that gaze on me, my heart would beat faster and my face would turn the same red as the first day I saw him. There's just something about-

_Ahem!_

Right, back to my all friends states of mind. Tori, as I already said, seemed lost. Derek was being, well…Derek. But he wasn't saying anything negative about our missing friend. And I say missing because we haven't heard anything from anyone about where she is, or at least I haven't. And neither has Rae but I'm not sure about Tori. I would think she hasn't because she's still so…lifeless and if anyone had told her anything, wouldn't she be happy to know where her friend is? I would be.

Simon and Rae would talk at lunch and include me in their conversations sometimes.

But for most of the week I didn't talk. I was too lost in my thoughts, thinking of why Liz didn't text or call to tell me what was going on with her. Had she been expelled? Suspended? Surely we would have heard about that, right? Was she grounded? Would that be why she has texted or called? Because she had no phone, cell or otherwise? What was going on to keep her from talking to me?

"Chloe? Chloe!" Rae's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. She was tugging on my arm, trying to tell me that lunch was over and everyone was leaving the cafeteria.

"Huh?" I looked around the cafeteria and saw almost everyone was gone. "Oh, I'm coming." I said grabbing my book bag off the floor and following Simon and Rae out of the cafeteria.

Derek was a few steps ahead of us and Tori was somewhere behind us, moving stiffly, methodically. Almost like a robot that was badly programmed to be a school student.

After school I found said robot going out to her bus. I wanted to ask her is she had heard anything about Liz, since she clearly wasn't going to talk to me about it at lunch. She glared at me, or tried to. She didn't seem to want to be as mean or maybe she just didn't have the energy to be mean at the moment. But she still snapped at me, saying no she hadn't heard anything from her _best _friend and not to ask her again.

I'm really glad it's Friday, I thought with a sigh.

When I got home I tried to call Liz's cell phone but no one answered. I didn't bother leaving a message. I had a weird feeling that even if I had, she wouldn't be returning my calls.

I still tried calling her house anyways. Her brother answered. He didn't have much to tell me though, seeing how he probably only knew what his nana would tell him. And since he's her younger brother, she would probably fudge the truth a little, if necessary, to make it easier on him. But he told me that she was somewhere getting better, and that something like that had happened before. Then he went off into some little story about it.

I wasn't really listening to him anymore though. My thoughts had moved on to wondering what someone was trying to make better.

There was never anything wrong with Liz before, was there?

No. No, I know there wasn't.

So what's going on now? There wasn't anything wrong with Liz before and now there's magically a problem. Something doesn't add up.

I have to distract myself or I'll go crazy thinking about this all weekend.

I hung up the phone with Liz's little brother after listening to his story and telling him goodbye. And as if right on cue, my phone vibrated. My distraction. It was Rae.

"Hello?"

"Chloe, is there anyway I could spend a couple nights at your house this weekend? I-I don't want to be home right now."

I was going to ask what was wrong but something in her voice told me to wait until later tonight. I told Rae I was going to be staying at my aunt Laurens this weekend and I would have to check with her to see if Rae could stay but that it should be okay.

Rae said thanks then quickly hung up the phone to go pack a few things for this weekend.

I called my aunt after that and she said she didn't have a problem with Rae staying with us. So at four thirty we picked her up and went back to my aunt's house.

Rae dropped her stuff off in the guest room and came back out to sit with me in the living room.

"Girls, are you two going to be okay while I go out for a little while?" Aunt Lauren asked.

I nodded.

"Alright, I'll see you two in a few hours."

"Bye." I said as she closed the door.

"Do you know where she's going?" Rae asked sneaking a peek out the window.

"Probably to the hospital. She goes there a lot."

"Oh." She sighed and started to play with a loose string on her shirt. "Chloe, can I talk to you about something?"

"Yeah. Sure, go ahead." I said pulling my legs up onto the couch.

"The reason I wanted to come stay with you this weekend was because my mom and I got into a fight and she got really mad and threw something. It flew right by my head and I grabbed her arm. She…she said I burned her when I grabbed her."

"Burned her? How?" I knew Rae liked fire but I didn't think she would go so far as to burn something or someone.

_Yet another thing that doesn't make sense._

"I didn't burn her. I didn't have a lighter or a match in my hand or even in my pocket! Chloe, I didn't burn her. I didn't and I don't know why she thinks I did. I'm so afraid of what's going to happen now. I didn't do anything but I think she's going to send me away."

"Away to where?"

"I-I don't know. You believe me right? You know I didn't burn her."

"I believe you."

"I would never hurt anyone with fire, I just like to look at it. You know that!" By now she was desperately trying to get me to listen to her. She was frantic and afraid that I wouldn't listen or that I would think she was crazy.

I placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her. "I know Rae. I believe you. Okay? Why don't you just go to school with me Monday, that way you don't have to worry about going home this weekend? Your mom knows where you are right, just so we won't get in trouble for having you staying with us."

She nodded.

"Alright, well then let's just do that."

"Okay."

After that talk we decided to watch movies and talk about anything that wasn't related to Liz or Rae's mom. My aunt came back around nine thirty with dinner.

That's how the whole weekend went. Rae and I watching movies and TV, talking and my aunt going out and coming back with something for us to eat.

When we went to school Monday morning the first thing we saw was Tori and her mother standing outside having an argument.

Well it was actually more like Tori's mother yelling at her and she was standing there crying. What kind of mother would do that, in front of all her friends and the people she knows? And no one was stopping her.

As we walked by both Rae and I cast a sympathetic glance at Tori, who responded by glaring and turning her back to us right before her mother grabbed her arm and yanked her towards her car.

"We are going home. Now Victoria. It's time for you to stop sulking over that girl."

In that moment I felt bad for Tori. I just saw a glimpse of what she had to go through with her mother. I would hate that. And to think a mother would actually be like that. Unbelievable.

"Chloe? Are you coming?"

I turned to see Rae by the entrance to the school and I realized I had been staring out at Tori and her mom in the parking lot.

"Uh, yeah." I said with one last glance out at the parking lot.

We found Derek and Simon standing near the gym doors. They didn't look happy.

As we neared I heard some of their conversation, it was almost an argument.

"Is there anyway that it could all be a coincidence?" Simon said.

"I don't believe in coincidences. Something's going on and now with-" he stopped and turned to face us, we hadn't even gotten close enough for him to really know we were there.

_Weird._

"Hey Chloe, Rae." Simon said with a smile.

Derek even said hi. Of course he was quite and it was more of a grumbling noise, but it was still a hi.

"Morning guys, what's going on?" I asked.

"Nothing-" Derek started to say but Simon cut in with a look in Derek's direction.

"It's-"

"Simon, don't say it." Derek warned.

"It's our dad. He's gone."

_Yet another thing gone wrong. What is going on here?_

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**I hope you guys liked it…and I hope you guys like they direction my story is going in. There was so much happening in this chapter but it's all just setting things in motion, hopefully everyone could keep up with my physco babble…**

**Guess who's the only person left who hasn't had anything happen to them…she's next. (That sounds so maniacal. I should add this…Muhahah.) **

**I so desperately want to say something else right now, but I can't seem to word it right. Phail. Like how I spell that? Haha. **

**Review please? Maybe…or don't… and make me sad…that wouldn't go over well in this authors mind…I'll update quicker if you review. I already have part of the next chapter done! Please review. Pretty please.**


	4. Necromancer

**Thank you guys so much for all the support for my story. Honestly I didn't think many people would like it. So I'm really happy you guys do. Even though I only got six reviews last chapter. *sigh* That made me sad. 'Cause that's not that many...**

**I'm sure some of you have guessed what's going to be happening in this chapter. Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: DP=Kelley Armstrong. My laptop, bunnies and ipod=Me. Darkest Powers will never be mine.**

_**Last Chapter:**_

"_**It's our dad. He's gone."**_

_**Yet another thing gone wrong. What is going on here?**_

**Necromancer**

**Chloe POV**

"Gone? Where?" I asked.

"If we knew we would be going to get him right now." Derek snapped.

"Bro, chill." Simon said. "Sorry Chloe."

I wanted to say it's okay. That I've come to expect something like that from Derek in the past week I've known him. But instead I just glared at him and didn't say anything back to Simon.

"So what are you guys going to do?" Rae asked, readjusting her book bag strap on her shoulder.

"When we go home today if he isn't there we're going to go looking for him." Simon said. The entire time he was talking, Derek was glaring at him. Apparently this was just supposed to be some family secret.

"Wait, what?" Rae asked.

"You're just going to leave?" I asked looking from one brother to the other.

"If we have to, yes." Derek said returning the glare I gave him earlier.

"I don't understand that. Why can't you just report him missing and stay with someone for now?"

"There is a lot of things you don't understand Chloe."

I felt like I'd been slapped and after he said that, I exploded.

"Don't you _dare_ tell me that! Just because you think you're some genius doesn't make you better and it doesn't give you the right to talk down to me!" I almost smacked him. Instead I turned on my heels and stormed away.

**Derek POV**

I felt bad about that. Sort of. She doesn't know anything about the world Simon and I live in and I wasn't going to tell her. I didn't need to drag innocent people into this.

"Derek, that was harsh. You didn't need to get mad at her." Simon said.

"I'm going to go see if she's okay." Rae said starting to go off after Chloe.

"Hold up we're coming to." Simon said trying to pull me along with him.

"I'm not going anywhere but to my first period class." I said yanking my arm back and heading to my class as the first bell rang.

"Rae we're going to have to talk to her later, unless you want to be late." Simon said running after her.

I was walking down the math hallway to my class, wondering if I should apologize for getting her so angry. Although I don't see much point in it. It's not like she gives a shit about me. Why should I give a damn if she hates me or not? Of course that wouldn't be much different from everyone else's thoughts of me. I'm honestly surprised she isn't scared like everyone else. She's so small and I could probably snap her like a twig but her will seems so strong.

_You don't even know her!_

Yeah, well she still seems-

My thoughts were interrupted by someone's scared whimpers. I knew who it was before I even saw her.

Chloe.

**Chloe POV**

"Hey!" I heard a girl shout from behind me.

I turned but didn't see anyone there.

"Behind you." she said with a snicker.

I whirled and saw a girl a couple inches taller than me. She had jet black hair, purple skinny jeans on and black v-neck tee shirt on. She looked to be a junior, maybe a senior.

"I would like to have chat with you."

"M-me? W-why?"

"I've been watching you for a while now, you've made me rather nervous. I've been wondering when you would be able to see me. I figured I would like to talk to you before you go slamming my spirit back into my dead body. Of course you need to find that body first but you never know what kind of fun you like to-"

"Wh-what are y-you t-talking about?"

"It's rude to interrupt you know. I don't want to be scared shitless because of some little necromancer girl. I'd like to live my already disturbed afterlife without having that fear that you might raise me."

"W-what? I-I don't even k-know-"

"What I'm talking about? Ha, yeah right. Stupid little necro girl, I know what you people are like. I've heard of you from others. You're vile people, getting your kicks out of making the dead suffer."

"I-I-"

"Shut up and don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about." She sighed. "But I guess if you won't listen to me I can scare you into doing so." She held up her arms and long gashes appeared over her wrists. She was bleeding so much but the blood was dripping off her arms and disappearing into nothing.

_What the-?_

I backpedaled, slamming into the wall, whimpering from the pain of smacking me head against the wall and from the horrible sight in front of me.

"Chloe!" It was Derek.

The girl turned her head sharply to glare at him then she turned back to me. "Remember me little girl. Just know that Kirsten will be looking for you if I get returned to my body." She said it with so much venom in her voice that if she had been a snake I would be poisoned right now. Then she vanished.

"Chloe! Are you okay?" Derek was right in front of me now.

I shook my head and looked up at him. "Derek, what's a necromancer?" I asked pushing myself away from the wall. I swayed and almost fell back against the wall but Derek grabbed my arm before I did.

Wincing, I peeled his hand off my arm and slowly leaned back against the wall.

I looked down and a red mark where his hand had been. "You're really strong."

He looked down at me with a sorry, guilty look in his eyes. "I need to talk to Simon." He said before walking away from me.

"Hey." I called after him. "Derek! You didn't answer my question! What is a necromancer?"

He just responded with a 'look it up' as he made a mad dash down the hall to go get Simon.

"Look it up?" I mumbled.

I sighed and then decided that going to find out what a necromancer was would be a better way to spend my time then going to my pointless first period class. So I headed off to the library to look it up.

I went to Google and typed in Necromancer. At first I got nothing interesting. Just random things for video games like World of Warcraft and things for comic books or song titles or whatever. But then I found the link to Wikipedia. And saw the definition for Necromancy.

"**Necromancy **is a form of magic in which the practitioner seeks to summon operative spirits or spirits of divination, for multiple reasons, from spiritual protection to wisdom. The word necromancy derives from the Greek words for 'dead' and 'prophecy'. However, since the Renaissance, necromancy has come to be associated more broadly with black magic and demon-summoning in general."

I added definition to the end of what I previously searched on and came up with the definition "one who practices divination by conjuring up the dead."

I tried going to images but the schools system was blocking any image that had to do with necromancy.

"Great" I muttered going back to the Google home page.

Could I really be one of these people? I can raise the dead and talk to their spirits? It all just seemed way too farfetched. But that girl…Kirsten, she said I was a Necromancer. There was no way she was real…was there? She couldn't be. She just vanished and she kept telling me not to raise her body. And the cuts on her wrists. The blood was disappearing too and I hadn't noticed them until she showed her arms to me in an attempt to scare me.

_Just look her up too. She if she wasn't just a figment of your imagination, genius._

Great, now _I'm _even calling myself and idiot. It was bad enough when Derek did.

But I listened to my inner voice and looked up a girl named Kirsten who had gone to this school and who had died.

What I got surprised me. The first link was a long article with a school picture of the same girl I saw not even an hour ago. The article said that she had been trying for a couple of months to kill herself in her own home but someone in her family always stopped her. Her therapist had placed her on different anti-depressants over the course of the next eight months but none of them seemed to help.

The article went on to say that she had finally had enough of being medicated and stopped from ending her life so she decided to go to school and do it in the bathroom. A teacher found her in the same bathroom across the hall from my geometry class.

I couldn't read anymore. I exited off the internet and signed off the computer.

For the next five minutes I just sat staring at the computer screen that was asking for me login information.

"Chloe? Chloe, are you okay?" It was Simon. I'd been so wrapped up in everything I was thinking about I hadn't noticed he'd been trying to get my attention. Now he was holding my hand, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles asking if I was okay, again.

I glanced over to see Derek standing behind him. His gaze was averted and there was tic working in his jaw.

I pulled my hand away from Simon and rubbed my face. "I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" He asked placing a hand on my arm. The same arm Derek grabbed earlier.

"She said she was fine Simon."

"Bro chill, I'm just checking."

"Really. I'm fine." I managed a fake smile. It seemed believable enough for Simon so he moved his hand from my arm and started to stand. That is until he saw the marks on my arm.

"Chloe! What happened to you?" he asked picking up my arm to examine it.

"It's nothing," I said yanking my arm back and pulling my sweatshirt sleeve down to cover it.

He looked up to Derek who didn't say anything.

"Alright. Whatever." Simon grumbled

"You looked it up right?" Derek asked.

I nodded. "And that's what I am? I-I can't believe that. It's…it's too odd."

Simon looked away and started focusing on a book on a nearby shelf.

"You better believe it Chloe. You were talking to a ghost today and she even told you what you were."

I looked away from Derek. I just couldn't be one of those people. I couldn't.

"But you can choose what you want to believe. It doesn't matter to me. Are you coming Simon?"

He didn't answer. I looked over and saw that the book he was focusing on came off the shelf and was hovering near the edge of it. It was then I noticed that Simon's hands were held up a little and he was concentrating on that book and moving his hand in the same movements the book was following.

"Simon." Derek hissed.

Simon jumped and turned to face his brother, the book fell to the floor.

"Try not to do that in public anymore."

Simon only shrugged.

"Do what?" I asked looking between them.

"What I just did with that book." Simon replied leaning against the wall.

Derek was looking around the library. "Guys, we need to have this conversation in the hallway, where there aren't other people."

"Alright, come on." Simon said taking my hand and following Derek out into the hall.

"So what did you do with that book?" I asked

"I'm a sorcerer."

"A what?"

"A sorcerer. I can do things like what I just did with the book or this." He held up his hands to…cast, I guess.

Derek didn't move or say anything and then Simon dropped his hands back to his sides.

Derek growled at his brother. "Simon, do _not _do that again."

Simon grinned. "I'm surprised it worked."

"What? How are you surprised it worked?" I asked staring at him.

"I'm…I'm pretty weak. But that was a binding spell." He chuckled. "I'm just glad it worked.

"I'm not." Derek growled, walking away from us.

After he turned the corner and I couldn't see him anymore I asked. "What is Derek? If you're a sorcerer and I'm a necromancer, what is he?"

"He wouldn't want me to tell you that. You could ask him but I'm not sure how well that would go."

"Well, then I'm not going to ask. I don't want him mad at me."

"Yeah, guess not." He looked down to my arm. "Did he accidentally do that to your arm?"

I looked at Simon then slowly nodded.

A panicked look crossed his face. "He didn't mean to Chloe, he never means to hurt-" he shut himself up really quickly. I had a feeling that he was hiding something from me but I wasn't going to press the issue.

Instead I told him that it didn't matter and that my arm didn't hurt. And I wasn't lying. My arm didn't hurt and I wasn't mad or upset with Derek for doing it, so there was no reason for Simon to freak over this.

Derek came back around the corner. "Simon, we're leaving now. We have to find dad."

"We're just cutting class?"

Derek nodded. "Not that it really matters, we wouldn't have stayed here long anyway."

"I want to come with you." I hadn't even realized I spoken out loud until Derek looked at me.

"No." He said sternly like the fact that he was rude and acting like an ass was going to scare me away from going with them.

"You can't make me stay here. I want to know more about this life you guys live and I want to help you find your dad."

"Damn it Chloe, no!" Derek had stepped closer to me, close enough for me to touch.

So I poked him in the chest while saying "You can't make me stay here."

He grabbed my hand, but not hard. And for a second I couldn't think. He only had a hold of my hand for a few seconds but I didn't want to let go. His voice brought me back to reality. "You don't really want to get involved with this life of ours."

"You don't know what I want Derek. You don't really even know me, so how can you say I don't want to go with you guys!"

"Derek, just let her come with us. Please."

Derek turned around to glare at Simon before grumbling 'fine' and storming down the hall making Simon and I have to jog to keep up.

"We'll have to sneak out the side door of the school so we don't get caught by a teacher and go to both our houses to grab whatever we're going to need." Derek said.

"Like clothes and stuff like that right?" I asked.

Derek gave me a 'duh' stare then Simon answered yes while glaring at Derek.

"It's going to take some time, but I'm hoping to be able to be looking for our dad before school let's out."

"Alright, then let's hurry." Simon said.

I nodded.

**Rae POV**

I asked my teacher for a pass to go to the bathroom. I didn't really need to use the bathroom, I just wanted to walk around the school for a little bit. It gets me out of class.

I didn't expect to see anyone out in the halls so when I saw Simon and Chloe walking quickly, trying to catch up to Derek, I got curious.

I followed them to one of the smaller doors at the side of the school and then they walked out.

"They're skipping?" I whispered to myself. Chloe would never do that. Either those guys have worked some serious magic on her or there is something more important going on here.

I have to find out.

I'm just glad I have my book bag in my locker and not in my class. Leaving a binder behind? Not a problem. Leaving the whole book bag? Big problem.

I ran down the hall to my locker, unlocked it, grabbed my bag and went back to find Chloe, Simon and Derek. I found them walking down the street about a block from the school. I followed them to wherever they were going. There isn't too much important that they would be skipping for at nine in the morning so whatever they _were_ skipping for had to be of major importance.

And I was going to find out what that thing of importance was.

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**So, did I do well with this chapter? I hope so. (This is the longest chapter I have EVER written for any of my stories.)**

**Would anyone believe me if I said I don't plan anything out when I'm writing, I just kind of type whatever comes to mind at the moment.**

**I know Derek's point of view is so small. But I really want to write pretty much everything in this story from Chloe's point of view. There will be some from Derek but at least ninety percent of this story is going to be from Chloe's point of view. Sorry if this disappoints anyone.**

**And I have a question for you guys, do you believe in the paranormal? You know like ghost and all…I was just wondering 'cause me, my dad and one of my friends went to do a paranormal investigation the other night at an inn near where we live and we got some interesting stuff…just curious if you guys believe in that sort of thing.**

**Anyway, hope you guys like this chapter. Review please. I love reviews like I love cookie dough ice cream. YUM. Man, I wish I had some cookie dough ice cream…sorry…review please! **

**(Sorry for the long authors note.)**

**(=^_^=)**


	5. Decisions

**Thanks to those oh I don't know, five of you who reviewed. You guys rock my crazy colored socks!**

**Oh and starting this chapter I'm adding previews to the next chapter because I have the next like three or four chapter down…but you know me, I won't update without some reviews first.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Darkest Powers. Oh no I don't.**

**Decisions**

**Chloe POV**

"We're going to stop at our house first." Derek said zipping up his jacket and stuffing his hands in his pockets. The wind had picked up since I'd woken up this morning and we were all pretty chilly now.

I nodded, not wanting to open my mouth. I'm didn't want them to notice my teeth were chattering.

But apparently Simon had noticed because he wrapped his left arm over my shoulder and pulled me closer. "Better?" He asked rubbing my arm.

"Yeah, thanks." That's what I said, but something in the back of my mind was saying 'but I wish it wasn't you trying to keep me warm.' But I dismissed that as the cold getting to me and snuggled closer. Derek ignored Simon and I as we walked.

The wind changed direction, blowing onto our backs. Derek stiffened. At first I thought it was from the cold but then I realized he'd slowed down and was looking around. Suddenly he grabbed Simon and I and pulled us into an alley.

"What is it?" Simon asked.

"I think we're being followed."

"Followed? By who? How do you know?"

"Chill out. One question at a time. It's someone we know Chloe."

Simon stuck his head around the corner of the alley and scanned the people that had been behind us. "It's Rae."

"Rae? What is she doing following us?" I asked trying to see around Simon, but Derek was holding me back.

"She must've seen us leave and been curious to where we went." Derek said pulling me behind him.

"Hey!" I said trying to go around him to see Rae. "Why can't I talk to her?"

Derek turned his head so he could see me or maybe it was to glare at me…But he said "We don't need to get anyone else involved in this." and turned back to face the opening of the alley.

"Involved in what Derek? What are we doing that she can't know about?"

"I could tell you Chloe, but it seems that _your _friend followed us, so right now I can't tell you anything. We have to lose her first."

"Why? What harm would it do for her to know we're looking for you dad? And speaking of that, how do you know he's in trouble? And did you talk to the police?"

"No, we didn't and we have good reason not to. Things have happened in our past, that's how I know he's in trouble. There are people after him. After us.

"Uh, guys-" Simon started.

"For what? Is your dad like a criminal or something. Am I helping you guys look for a bad guy here?"

"No." he growled

"Guys…" Simon said again.

"Then what is it Derek? Why the heck you someone be after you guys if you aren't-"

"Chloe it's not that simple. You saw that Simon is a sorcerer, and you're a necromancer. There are supernaturals who-"

"And you know what you never told me what "supernatural" you are."

"Don't Chloe."

"Guys!" Simon practically shouted.

"What?" We both yelled in unison and whirled to find Rae standing next to Simon.

"Oh." I said, half smiling at Rae.

"Shit." Derek said stalking towards her.

"What if I was one of you guys? Could I come with you then?"

"Yes." Simon and I said.

"No." Was Derek's answer.

"But what if I could prove that I'm a, what did you say? Supernatural?"

"You aren't a supernatural Rae." Derek stated simply.

"How do you know? You have no proof I'm not and I have proof that I could be!" You could hear the hurt in her voice but you could also hear her anger rising.

"You're not Rae." Derek said trying to convince her that she wasn't a supernatural, but it also sounded like he was trying to convince himself. Like maybe the idea of her being a supernatural wasn't completely insane.

Rae grabbed for his arm and said. "You don't know that." she sounded even more mad than before.

Derek yanked his arm back with a growl. "How the hell did you burn me?" He growled at her.

"I-I-I…I didn't mean to! But do you see what I mean? You wouldn't listen to me and I was just getting even more mad at you and I burned you. I don't have any matches or a lighter of anything. Derek, if I'm not one of you then what is wrong with me?" Rae sounded frantic, bordering on desperation, trying to get Derek to listen to her.

"I don't know. But for now just come with us and we'll see if we can get this figured out along the way." Derek said brushing by us and continuing to head in the direction of his home.

We were left standing in the alley while he stalked off being mad about…something.

But we quickly caught up because if we lost him he would be even more pissed at us. Not that it really mattered if we lost him. Simon knew where we were going but still…Derek was mad enough and I didn't want him yelling at us, or more specifically me, again.

Simon walked farther ahead of Rae and I, trying to catch his brother to talk, at least that's what Simon said. I think he was also giving me and Rae and chance to talk.

"I thought he was odd before. Now," Rae shivered. "He's kind of scary when he's mad."

I looked at her and shrugged. "I don't think so." I changed the subject before she could say anything else on the matter. "Why did you follow us?"

"I don't know. I was just curious as to where you guys were going, that's all."

"That's all? Well, you are now a part of this mission to find their dad. You up for it?"

She nodded and smiled a big grin. "I won't get in the way and I won't mess anything up. Promise."

A little while later Rae and I were standing in the living room in Simon and Derek's house, waiting for them to get what they needed packed and waiting for them to get done their showers. Derek had decided that we wouldn't be sleeping in a hotel, to save cash, so we needed to shower now because none of us knew when the next time we would get to do that would be.

Eventually we got tired of just standing around waiting on them so we went to find Simon and sit with him. He was in his room throwing clothes into a backpack and trying to fit his sketch book and pencils into the back with the clothes.

"Hey Simon," I started. "Where's the bathroom?" I suddenly had to pee…really badly.

"Right down the hall. Derek should be out now."

"Okay." I said then I slipped out of the room and down the hall to find the bathroom.

What he didn't tell me was that you needed to go by Derek's room to get there. So of course when I walked by his room, his door was cracked open and he was getting dressed. I froze when I saw him. He was half dressed, his jeans on but that was it.

_Oh my…_

So…he was hiding a body that should be reserved for a god…that little detail made my face turn red _and_ that little fact was something I certainly didn't expect. His baggy clothes made me think he was covering up being overweight but, boy was I _wrong._

Derek started to turn to face the door, as if he knew I was there, so I bolted down the hall to the bathroom so he wouldn't catch me staring. And I had definitely been staring, mouth gaping open and wide eyed.

When I walked out Derek was standing outside his room, his backpack slung over his shoulder. "I'm ready to go and so is Simon. Are you?"

"S-sure." I said, my face red…again.

I led them to my aunts house so Rae could pack her things since a lot of what she needed was still at my aunts. I packed my clothes and everything I thought I needed that would fit without being too heavy into my backpack too. And that saved the time of needing to actually go to my house too.

And then we were walking again. I had no idea where we were going so I was just following Derek and Simon.

We walked for what seemed like forever, until Derek stopped us again. Looking far more serious than he had the first time.

"We're being followed again." he said, urging us to keep walking. "Act normal. Let's try and lose them."

"Lose who?" I said back, quietly.

"The boogieman."

I glared at him.

"God Chloe, I don't know. Whoever the heck has been following us. They aren't someone I've ever-" he just stopped talking, like he was about to tell me something I shouldn't know.

"You've ever what?"

"Nothing. Never mind."

"Okay…"

"There's an alley up ahead that we're going to duck into and hide while they pass. Got it?" he looked at each of us.

We all nodded.

Derek glanced over his shoulder quickly to see how many people were between us and the people following us, then made us move into the alley. Once we were in the alley I saw that it turned off to the right and Derek did too…he shooed us in the direction of the turn and then stopped again.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me back. "Shhh…" he whispered then went to grab Simon and Rae. He whispered something to Simon that I couldn't hear.

"Are you sure Derek?"

He nodded.

"Well, hell. What do we do?"

"Good question. I think we're trapped."

"Guys?" Rae and I said at the same time. Only I continued though. "What's going on?"

"We just walked into a trap." Derek said looking over his shoulder just as we heard a walkie talkie.

"Mrs. Enright, we've found them."

* * *

**Chapter 6 Preview:**

The woman pulled a gun out and aimed it at me.

"Shit." Derek growled.

The woman pulled the trigger just as Derek shoved me out of the way. I felt the bullet breeze by my face as I fell back and slammed against the corner of the building on the right side of the alley. I bit down hard on my lip from the pain in my shoulder. Then I looked up and saw that Derek was bleeding.

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**So umm…review please. PLEASE!!! **

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	6. Trapped

**I got a whopping six reviews. Oh joy. Thanks to you six who reviewed. Honestly I wouldn't continue with this story if it wasn't for you guys…because it seems that only you few like it.**

**Anyways…glad you all like the fact that there are previews.**

**Disclaimer: DP lives in the brilliant mind of Kelley Armstrong, not me.**

**Trapped**

**Chloe POV**

"That was easier than I thought it would be." A tall black haired man said walking towards us and pocketing his walkie talkie. Two more people were behind him, one short, pudgy brown haired man and a black haired woman.

"Thought you were supposed to be smart Derek. Especially with your heightened senses, thought you would have known before you walked down here."

Heightened senses? What the heck was he talking about?

The man shrugged and then smiled a sinister smile when two more men appeared in the alley behind us.

They must have been who was following us before we ducked in here to get away from them.

That worked out _so _well.

"Derek, what are we going to do?" I whispered, hoping they didn't hear me.

Without answering me, Derek rushed at the apparent leader of their group. The man caught Derek around his waist and tried to throw him against a wall, but Derek barely moved and they ended up wrestling each other to the ground and throwing punches at each others faces and ribs instead.

Simon stood off to the side of everyone, trying to cast a spell, I guess. The fact that nothing was happening told me he needed more practice at what he did. But someone needing more practice wasn't helping us right now.

In fact it made him a liability…then again Rae and I weren't much better. I started looking around the alley for something to use against them. Anything that was big enough for me to swing and hit someone. I'd never hurt anyone before and I was questioning if I would be able to do this now.

Rae ducked out of the way of someone trying to grab her then reached for two wood boards I hadn't noticed before. She threw one to me and to my surprise, I caught it.

The pudgy man rushed at me and without thinking I swung the board and it slammed into his stomach, knocking the air out of him and sending him to his knees. He sat on the ground on all fours panting, trying to catch his breath. Once he did, he grabbed for my legs trying to knock me on the ground.

I barely pulled myself away before falling onto the ground too. I swung the board and it smacked right into his head. He sat dazed for a moment before falling face first into the pavement and passing out. I only hoped I hadn't done any major damage to him.

I heard a thud and looked up to see the man Derek had been wrestling with passed out on the ground.

"Enough of this stupid hand to hand crap." The black haired woman said before reaching around her back.

The woman pulled a gun out and aimed it at me.

"Shit." Derek growled.

The woman pulled the trigger just as Derek shoved me out of the way. I felt the bullet breeze by my face as I fell back and slammed against the corner of the building on the right side of the alley. I bit down hard on my lip from the pain in my shoulder. Then I looked up and saw that Derek was bleeding.

Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I scrambled to Derek's side to see if he was badly injured.

He hissed in pain then turned an angry gaze on the woman who'd just shot at us. From what I could see he hadn't been seriously hurt from the bullet, but I know whatever happened it didn't feel good. He growled before launching himself at the woman and throwing her to the ground. Her head hit the pavement so hard she passed out instantly.

A look…of something I couldn't quite identify passed over Derek face before he turned stood and came to help Rae and Simon. I briefly wondered what had happened in his past that made him look like that before my attention was pulled to Rae, Simon and Derek.

Derek was frozen in place. I looked to see a man standing with his hands up and I guess that it was a spell holding him there. Simon was fighting with another man, who had a passed out Rae slung over his shoulder.

"Let's just get out of here now. We're out numbered now but we have one of them." The man holding Rae said to his partner.

"Davidoff is not going to be happy about this."

"Too bad! We have one of them, lets just go before we all end up passed out in this alley."

The man holding Derek in place snarled before releasing Derek and taking off down the opposite end of the alley with his partner. We didn't even have time to react before we heard car doors slamming and tires screeching, indicating they got away with Rae.

But it amazed me that no one on the street noticed what just went down in the alley.

Derek's curse came out as a growl.

"What are we going to do?" Simon asked. "They have Rae."

"I know." Derek curled his lip and slammed his fist into the wall next to him.

"Guys, I know getting her back from them is important and all, but Derek, we need to look at your wound before we do anything else." I said taking a step closer to him.

"Chloe, I'm fine. We need to leave. Now"

"Yeah, right. We need to leave but we aren't going to yet because you aren't _fine_."

"Yes. I am. I can walk, therefore we can leave."

"You are bleeding! We aren't going anywhere until you're fixed."

He stopped arguing with me, probably realizing that I wasn't going to back down and looked around the alley.

"Where's Simon?"

I glanced around. "Umm…good question."

Derek turned his back to me and took a deep breath, stamping down his anger, I guessed. Then he grabbed his bag and started walking down the alley to the exit.

"Derek!" I said chasing after him, grabbing his sweatshirt and trying to pull him to a stop. He only yanked free and kept walking.

"I'm following Simon."

"Following? I thought you didn't know where he went."

Derek didn't answer.

I was just glad that his sweatshirt was a dark color because you only noticed her was hurt if you looked closely. And I had a feeling people would steer clear of him. I know I would avoid a guy who was six foot something and looked seriously pissed off.

We didn't walk long before we, or should I say Derek, saw Simon walking down the street towards us, his backpack slung over one shoulder and carrying a plastic bag.

"Where were you?" Derek snapped when we got closer.

Simon sighed "I got tired of hearing you two bicker. I figured Chloe would win so I just went to buy what you needed to clean up."

"That was stupid. It's too dangerous to do that."

"I came back in one piece didn't I?"

"That's not the point." Derek said before grabbing the back and stalking off leaving me standing with Simon.

"Why is he in such a bad mood?" I whispered to Simon.

He shrugged. "You'd have to ask him."

"Yeah. "I'm sure asking him why he's acting like a temperamental puppy would go over so well."

"A temperamental puppy…" he smiled. "That fits nicely."

There was an odd glint in his eye when he said that but I didn't know why.

"We should follow him before he get's anymore annoyed." I said.

"Yeah. That might be a good idea."

We walked along in silence, a good six or seven feet behind Derek. Simon was walking so close, his elbow was bumping mine. I don't know why but I was really wishing for my personal space. It irritated me that I couldn't figure out why I wanted my space. I mean, Simon's cute and he seems to like me so why did I feel like this. I wanted to say I liked him but couldn't without feeling guilty.

But that was stupid. What could I be feeling guilty over?

After about ten minutes Derek stopped at a gas station to use the restroom in the back and fix his side. We stood outside to wait.

"So, what are we going to do about Rae?" I asked leaning against the wall and fingering the pendant on my necklace.

"I don't know. We should; find out where she went though. He shook his head. "I can't believe we walked right into a trap."

"It's my fault." Derek said from the bathroom. I ignored him.

"It's not like we could have known. Who were they anyway?"

He shrugged and opened his mouth to say something. I cut him off.

"Wait…Enright?" I thought for a moment while Simon stared at me, not really making the connection. "That's Tori's last name. So whoever that guy was talking to on the walkie talkie…"

"It could have been Tori's mom." Simon said. "But why?"

"We need to find dad." Derek said from in the bathroom. "He would know."

"How does he keep-"

Simon cut me off by placing a finger on his lips in a silent _shh._"

I sighed.

From I'd seen with Tori and her mother the other day I knew she wasn't a very nice person but to send out a team of people, who we had never seen before, to capture of kill us…that didn't make any sense.

I wanted answers.

Derek pulled open the bathroom door. He was dressed in a black sweatshirt instead of the blue one he had on before.

"How bad?"

He glanced at me before shouldering his backpack. "I told you it was fine." Then he stalked off.

"Derek!" I said chasing after him, leaving Simon again. I glanced back at him and knew he wouldn't be following us too closely. The look on his face said it all.

He was tired of hearing us talk. Or yell…argue…whatever.

I was too. Derek was agitated over something. Couldn't say what. And he seemed so much more irritated right now, today, than he had before. He's stressed, I can understand that. His dad is missing and now we seem to be aimlessly wandering around. And on top of that we were attacked earlier and we have no idea why. And we don't know why they took Rae.

But is all that the reason he is acting this way? Honestly, I couldn't blame him if it was but…still, I was getting tired of his attitude.

"Derek." I said grabbing his arm and pulling him to a stop. I thought, for a moment, that his arm seemed warmer than usual. Not that it was easy to tell because of his sweatshirt but…

He looked down at me, his gaze seeming to soften until he blinked and scowled. I wondered if maybe I was just seeing things. I wouldn't be surprised if I was losing my mind. I mean, I saw a ghost yesterday…or I saw something. If I was crazy, could all this be a hallucination?

"Did you want something?" Derek said, still staring down at me.

I dropped my hand from his arm. "I-I uh…I forgot."

Derek cocked his head, looking at me slightly confused. My face was probably scarlet red.

Simon came up behind us. Derek looked at him and a look, that I missed, passed between them.

"Maybe we should find a place to sleep for tonight." Derek said. "It's going to be dark soon and as soon as the sun comes up, we're up too."

So I followed Derek, Simon a foot behind me as I walked, as he walked down the street pausing at alleys that seemed to keep us hidden from people passing by, blocked from any wind but still seemed moderately comfortable.

He was searching for this in an alley.

Maybe I'm not the crazy one.

Finally, he found an alley that seemed to fit his criteria.

"Stay closer to this wall." Derek said pointing to the left wall.

I didn't bother asking why. I just decided to listen to him.

Derek told Simon to keep watch over me while he went to find somewhere to buy something for us to eat. It made me feel like I was five again. Like I couldn't take care of myself, especially with the tone he used when he said it.

"I'm sorry he's acting like such a jerk." Simon said as he sat down next to me.

"It's…whatever. I don't know what his issue is but I can deal with him."

Simon glanced over at me. He placed his hand over mine and I looked at him and smiled. But my stomach was in knots.

"You always have me to help with his attitude."

"Yeah. He won't bite your head off like he would with me."

"He hasn't yelled at your for anything yet has he?"

"Not really. But I can feel it's coming. I just know it."

"Just ignore him. He'll simmer down eventually and everything will be fine."

"Uh-huh."

"It will be. He's just…different than most people."

I almost blurted out 'No, really? Never would have guessed that one.' But I bit my tongue. "How?"

"What do you mean how? How is he different?" He paused, looking towards the mouth of the alley, probably seeing if Derek was back yet. "I shouldn't tell you…I will say he's super strong and has enhanced senses but I think I'll leave the rest to him. All you have to do is ask and he'll give you answers. But don't ask him anything and he won't answer with anything."

I decided to change the subject.

"So what other types…species…races-?"

"Species?" Simon laughed. "You make it sound like we're a group of animals. Races would be better."

"Okay…are there any animals?"

"What?"

"Like a werewolf or some kind of shape shifter?"

"Not sure."

"Not sure?" I asked "How are you not sure?"

He shrugged then smiled at me.

"Uh-huh." And now I was confused

But I couldn't ask Simon anymore questions because Derek had come back.

He handed me an energy bar and an apple. He only handed fruit to Simon. I made a note to wonder about that later. Right now my brain was falling behind. I was just glad it was almost dark so I could try to get some sleep.

Once I had gotten comfortable it didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

But my sleep wasn't a very deep one. I awoke about three hours later. Simon was asleep on my left, snoring. I looked around to see where Derek was.

He was standing at the entrance of the alley, pulling his sweatshirt off.

I stood up and walked over to him.

"You okay?"

"Really hot." He grumbled. Then he scratched his arm and I thought I saw the muscles move. Not like flexing…moving on their own.

"Got fleas too?"

He glared at me. "I'm not a dog."

"Umm…okay."

He scratched his arm again. Then his back.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Fine."

"You sure?"

He nodded. "Just go back to sleep and don't worry about it."

"Oh…okay. Are-"

"You need to sleep. I'm fine."

I realized there was no arguing with him I just went back to where I was sleeping before. I wanted to think about what was going on with him and I wanted to be worried but it wasn't too much longer until I fell asleep again.

* * *

**Chapter 7 Preview:**

"Derek? Is…is that you?"

I heard a whimper that sounded more animal like than human.

"D-Derek? Are…are you alright?"

Another whimper and then a small snap. Another small snap.

I knew I saw Derek come back here but if this was Derek…

Then he was a werewolf.

* * *

**So…I bought The Reckoning on Tuesday and I've read it twice already. On Tuesday I didn't even wait until I got out of the book store to read it after I bought it. Me and my mom were walking out and she was giving me the weirdest looks because I was walking and reading.**

**Oh…I kind of got off track…Review Please. Pretty please.**


	7. Werewolf

**I luff you guys! I have never had this many reviews for one chapter in this story. Eek! Yay!**

…**Sorry…**

**Anyway, thanks for those reviews and all that. I'm glad there are more people out there who like it than I thought. Obviously in this chapter Chloe is going to find out what Derek really is…says so in mah preview. And I'm glad I'm not the only nut who went out and didn't even wait until they got home to start The Reckoning…even though that was a while ago. I bought my own copy and four or five of my friends were fighting with me on who got to read it after me…it was SAD. I just got the book back like a week ago.**

**But you know how sometimes when you see a preview for something you only get like little pieces of what's going to happen? Well that's what happened with the last preview, you can see he's going to Change but that isn't a little chunk of the story like the other preview(s)? have been.**

**Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: DP is Kelley Armstrong's wonderful idea. I just like to play with the characters.**

**Chloe POV**

The next morning when we woke up Derek looked even worse. I doubt he'd gotten anymore sleep last night. He told Simon that he was fine and Simon believed him! Though I'm not sure whether it was because he didn't want Derek to get irritated with him for worrying or because he truly believed him.

Either way, it was obvious that there was something wrong with him. The fact that he was sweating like crazy would have tipped me off. But I am certainly not Simon so I don't know what is going on in his head where Derek is concerned.

Then Derek sent Simon off to find something to eat from, well, somewhere. He tried to get me to go with Simon but I refused to leave Derek when he looked so bad. So I just sat next to him and waited for Simon to return.

"Derek, what is wrong with you?"

He hissed then shifted so he could scratch his back. "It's nothing you need to worry about. I already told you that."

"But you look horrible."

"And I feel horrible. But don't worry about it."

"How can I not worry about you?" I reached to touch his forehead. I knew because he was sweating he had a fever but how hot was he to the touch?

He reached up and wrapped his hand around my wrist, preventing me from touching him.

"Chloe just stop. Just let me rest so that when Simon comes back we can eat and leave."

"You really shouldn't go anywhere today Derek. We should just stay here and let you rest."

This time he ignored me. I mumbled something about him being stubborn. Then we just sat in silence until Simon came back with breakfast.

That was the longest silence of my life. Or at least it felt like it.

When Simon finally returned Derek was no more sociable and of course, still no better.

I moved away from Derek and sat next to Simon. At least I felt more welcome on this side of the alley.

Simon bit into his apple then pulled out his sketch pad and a pencil. He wrote: _Still being a jerk?_

I glanced over at Derek. His eyes were closed, the back of his head resting against the wall.

I nodded yes to Simon and momentarily felt guilty because of the state Derek was in.

_Anything I can do?_ He wrote.

I shook my head and reached for his pencil. _I can get over him being a jerk for now. Or just not talk to him. _I handed his pencil back.

_I would go with option A. He would notice you ignoring him. But he should be a little better in a day or two._

_You know something is wrong with him! What is it? Tell me!_

He stiffened and grabbed the pencil back from me.

"Simon!" I accidentally said out loud. Derek's head shot forward, his eyes flying open.

"What's going on?" he asked

"N-nothing."

"Yeah bro. Nothing. I was just showing Chloe some drawings and she really liked one."

I doubt that Derek truly bought that but he acted like he did. Whatever was wrong with him was messing with him mentally.

But I couldn't believe Simon knew what was wrong with him and wasn't doing anything! Derek clearly needed a real bed to sleep in, in a building that had plumbing and heating. Last time I checked sick people shouldn't be sleeping outside where you are subject to Mother Nature's whims. But both of them kept moving on like there was nothing wrong with Derek, when clearly there was.

It was irritating enough to make me want to smack them both. Simon for not helping his brother and Derek for being so stubborn as to not try and help himself.

"We-" Derek stood up. "Should be going."

"Lead the way." Simon said.

I looked at him like he had completely lost his mind but then I noticed that when he looked over to Derek he looked worried too. So, he knew what was going on but maybe he didn't know all the details? I wasn't sure why he had that look in his eyes but at least he seemed to care about what his brother was going through.

That made me feel better.

But at the same time it made me feel like an idiot. How could I question whether he was worried or not? They're brothers for crying out loud. Closer than any blood related brothers could ever be.

We walked for almost two hours, going absolutely no where. At least it seemed that way. Derek lead us where we were supposed to be going. That's just how it went. But he seemed like he was having a hard time focusing long enough to get us somewhere.

Around noon he sent Simon into a convenience store to grab something to eat. But the food wasn't for Derek and it wasn't for me. Derek only seemed to care that Simon got something. Not that it mattered to me since I wasn't even hungry.

Simon came out of the store carrying a bag. He pulled out some fruit, which I noticed seemed to be the only thing he ate, then he handed the bag to Derek. Derek stuck it in his backpack.

A few hours later, Mother Nature threw a temper tantrum. The sky clouded over and I swear the temperature dropped twenty degrees. Derek told me there was no way it dropped that much but it definitely felt a lot colder. He handed me his sweatshirt. The very same sweatshirt he was pulling off last night when I woke up.

When I tried to hand it back to him, he told me that I needed it more than him. Then I realized he hadn't even put it back on after last night. So I said thank you, shrugged off my backpack and pulled the sweatshirt on.

I was struck by how strong Derek's scent was. I'd never really noticed it before, but he smelled almost woodsy. I pulled the hood over my head and held the sleeves up to my face, pretending to be shielding myself from the cold but really inhaling the smell. When I realized the full extent of what I was doing I dropped my hands, my face turning red. Thankfully neither one of the guys noticed.

I glanced up at Derek.

_What is it about you?_ I thought before all of us lapsed into silence for a few more hours.

The sun was still up when we stopped. Wherever we had wandered to, the whole area was abandoned, or at least it seemed that way. That was actually quite convenient for us but just to be safe Derek found us an alley that was connected to several buildings on the street we were on, and he led us to the very back.

Derek slumped against the wall opposite Simon and I. I wanted to ask him if he was alright but I already knew how he would answer. 'Don't worry about it. I'll be fine."

The problem was that I was worrying. A lot.

Simon spent a little while trying to distract me. He would start to draw something, making me guess what it was. Everything he drew was pretty easy to guess, except for this really intense dragon. He'd started with it's tail and the tail had kind of looked like a big snake until he added details. But the body was huge, the four feet had rather large talons and it's tail wrapped around one of it's back legs. The coolest part? The dragon was breathing fire. After I guessed what it was I wouldn't let him move on until he finished that drawing.

Once he did, he pulled it out of his sketch book and folded it in half then unzipped my backpack and slipped the drawing in the back where it, hopefully, wouldn't be destroyed.

"Thanks." I said yawning.

"Why don't you sleep? It doesn't seem like we are going anywhere else tonight. Might as well get as much sleep as you can."

"Very true." I said getting as comfortable as I could. When I fell asleep the first time Derek was still awake.

When I awoke a few hours later Derek was lying down on his back on the ground. I doubted that he was asleep though. I drifted back off to sleep a few minutes later.

The next time when I woke up it was dark, Simon was sleeping and someone or something was rustling around in the alley. I opened one eye and noticed Derek was walking away from where Simon and I were.

As quietly as I could I stood up and followed him through the maze that was the alleyway we had as our home for tonight. Since there was no more light than the light from the full moon it was kind of difficult to follow him.

So when he got further ahead of me and the alley split in two separate directions I had to guess where I was going. I stopped, hoping for some sort of sound that would tell me which way he went because from where I was standing both the left way and the right one were too dark to see too far down the alley.

I heard what sounded like something hitting a dumpster then someone throwing up. That nasty heaving sound, that sounds gross when you are doing it but is almost worse when you hear it coming from someone else, especially when it's from a friend. The noise was faint but it gave me enough of a hint as to where he went.

I slipped down the left alley where the noises were coming from. I felt like a total fool. I'd seen enough movies to know that this was a bad idea. Just follow the sounds that go bump in the night little girl, everything will be alright. And yet here I was, following the sounds in a dark alley.

I just hoped they led me to Derek and not some homicidal maniac.

_You have seen one to many horror films, haven't you?_

Ignoring that inner voice that was both A, making fun of me and B, telling me to turn around, I rounded the next corner and came upon what had to be the biggest alley I'd ever seen. You could have parked two or three cars in between the buildings that were here. For all I knew that's people had done before this area became too run down to live in.

There was a shuffling on the opposite side of the alley/miniature parking lot. Unfortunately, it was too dark for me to see that far away. I was hoping this was Derek making that noise. When something smacked the dumpster on that side I was hoping that it was Derek too.

I stepped closer and the horrible acidic stench of vomit hit me.

Then I noticed a dark shape on the opposite side of the dumpster I was closest too.

"D-Derek? Is that you?"

I stepped closer, trying to get a better picture of what I was looking at. But it was difficult with only the pale light from the moon. There appeared to be an odd shadow over Derek's skin that would come then go but upon further inspection, I realized it was very short hairs. Like a fur coat growing and receding.

I heard a whimper that sounded more animal than human. Maybe it was just because he sounded like he was in a lot of pain.

"Derek? Are…are you alright?"

Another whimper and then a small snap. Another small snap. It sounded like someone was cracking their knuckles.

I knew I saw Derek come back here but if this was Derek…

That thought was cut short when I heard him speak, or try to, the sound was the one thing that for sure let me know I was looking at Derek. It also ensured that I was not going to leave him here alone.

"Chloe." he rasped.

"Oh my gosh, Derek." I moved to kneel next to him, frantically thinking of something I could do to help him even though I wasn't entirely sure of what was going on.

"You can't-" he let out a painful sigh. "Stay here."

"Sure I can. And you can't make me leave. You're in no position to do so."

"Chloe." He almost growled my name but I wasn't going to back down. I couldn't leave him here. "You have to-" he was interrupted by what I was guessing was a sharp pain. His back arched and he emptied his stomach onto the pavement in front of him. I cringed in sympathy for him even though he probably couldn't see my face.

"Please." He croaked.

"Please? If you are asking me to go I'm-"

"No. Stay." The words came out in a rush of air.

I sighed in relief. "Is there anything I can do?"

I thought I saw him shake his head. "Just-" he groaned. "Don't leave me."

I placed my hand on his arm and watched his fingers shift, shrinking into little nubs that kind of made his hands look like paws…what I thought was small hairs before I discovered were just that. Or fur.

I swallowed as I put all the little pieces together. This event, for lack of a better word, all the little jokes I'd unknowingly made that Simon wouldn't really say much too, that fact that he answered that he wasn't sure about werewolves existing. Of course he would say that.

He was protecting his brother.

Then that made Derek a werewolf. Funny how I should be afraid of this new found fact, but I wasn't. Maybe it's because it was Derek here in front of me. The guy had taken a bullet for me, granted it only grazed him, but I doubt that if he did that much to keep me safe, that he would hurt me now.

I sat there for another minute or so listening to his dry heaves that were painful to hear. Then suddenly, it stopped. The starting of his fur that had been under my fingers receded and didn't grow back out again. It took a little longer for his fingers to return to normal and he kept his face hidden from me so I was guessing that his face had changed some too.

But I still sat with him while he shook and panted, waiting for his body to return to normal.

Derek sat back against the dumpster and stared at me. "You aren't going to run away screaming or anything right?"

I shook my head.

"Okay. Just wanted to make sure since that isn't an everyday occurrence in the normal world."

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to keep the heat in.

Derek, of course, noticed. "Cold?"

I nodded. "After the, I don't really want to call it an adrenaline rush but-"

"I know what you mean."

"Yeah. Well, I'm cold now."

He stood and motioned for me to follow him. I did, not really sure where he was going. He went back into the dark alley that I had come out of not too long before now. Then he sat against the wall.

"There's less wind coming back here so you should be warmer." He patted the ground next to him a few times. "Sit."

I moved to sit a few feet away from him.

"You aren't going to be any warmer over there Chloe."

I glanced at him and blushed. He had laid that offer down on the table; move closer to be warm. The only thing was the idea of moving closer made my stomach all fluttery. I mean this was Derek. _Derek._ We're just friends. That's all.

I just wish there was someway to convince my stomach of that.

But I moved anyway because I was too cold to care anymore. And Derek was hot, like human space heater kind of hot, so I was glad I moved.

"Better?"

I nodded.

"So, I take it you figured out what I am, right?"

I nodded again.

"Still not going to run screaming?"

"No. Why? Should I?"

Derek looked away. He got this distant look to his eyes and I knew that if he was going to answer me he would say that I should run away screaming. But he didn't answer and I got this feeling that he didn't want to talk about it so I changed the subject.

"So…how often does this happen?" I looked up at the sky and pointed at the moon. "Anything to do with the fact that it's a full moon tonight."

He snorted. "That's a myth. No, it has nothing to do with the moon and unfortunately I have no idea how often this is going to happen." He glanced down at me and I noticed that despite his calm words, the fact that he didn't know scared him.

I searched my brain for another subject change and came up blank until I pulled the sleeves of his sweatshirt over my hands.

"Do you want this back?" I asked waving the too long sweatshirt sleeve in the air.

"No."

"I didn't mean right now. I know you don't want it now. But-"

"You can keep it Chloe."

"Oh. Well, thanks."

We sat in silence for a few minutes until Derek spoke again.

"You shouldn't have come with us."

"What?" I asked him in disbelief.

"All this-" he gestured at nothing but I understood what he meant. Everything we've been through so far and what's to come. "It's too dangerous."

"But you and Simon are doing this. If it's dangerous then why are you doing this too?"

He didn't answer. I didn't know what to say to get him to talk so I gave up on that. The only thing I could think of that would be a good reason for them was finding their dad.

"You don't know anything about the supernatural world though Chloe. Which makes it's more dangerous for you. You shouldn't have taken that risk."

"Well inform me on the world you live in Derek."

"Not tonight."

"You can't do that."

"What?"

"You can't say it's too dangerous then not give me a good reason why. Not explain anything to me."

Again, Derek didn't say anything.

I sighed and started to stand.

"Wait." he reached up, fingers wrapping around my wrist preventing me from going anywhere.

"What?"

"I…" He swallowed. "Never mind." he let go of me and let his hand fall into his lap.

I sighed then walked back down the alley and turned to where Simon was still sleeping. A few minutes later I was lying down trying to sleep when Derek returned too. He unzipped his backpack and pulled out a few things that I couldn't see in the dim light. He paused and looked over at me.

"Good night Derek." I whispered softly. I didn't know if he heard me though. Then I closed my eyes.

**Chapter 8 Preview**

Derek looked away from me. He had that faraway, lost child look in his eyes again and I felt bad for bringing this up.

"Whatever happened Derek, you don't have to tell me. Just tell me about everything else." I said softly.

"No, Chloe. I want to tell you this…I need to. And I need to tell you now, before Simon comes back. It might change your opinion of me and make you regret coming with us though. That's why I'm having such a hard time with it."

**The Change might be a lot like the one in The Summoning…I haven't read that far into the book in six months or so, so I don't remember it all. Sorry.**

**People please show me some love. (I'm so much happier in my beginning authors note. Reason: I wrote that like two weeks ago.) The only thing good about this week was my 4H meeting on Tuesday…like I'm really bummed about something that happened on Sunday (Yes, it's Thursday and I'm still not happy about it)…so please? Reviews would be a pick me up, even if only for a little while.**

**I'm hoping for at least five. That's an easy number right?**

**(=^_^=)**


	8. Broken

**If I haven't already thanked you for your review for the last chapter THANKS! Seventeen reviews is like epic. Love my reviewers. I'd meant to have this chapter up and finished after the earthquake that inspired me to write the first half of it but I ended up doing something with my dad and his friends instead…and that was a long time ago (sort of...mid-summertime) But sorry. **

**Now with school and all I've been finding less and less time for my favorite activities. So, if sorry doesn't cover it can I throw in some super ultra mega badass lemonade with that? Maybe a shirtless Derek or a Chlerek moment? No? Shoot…Because I could have totally worked some of that into later chapters.**

**SO! I have not forgotten about you guys…I'm just busy and a slow writer when I'm not busy. (Mostly due to the fact I forget where I was going with something.)**

**Disclaimer: Not even that old awesome inspirational earthquake can make DP mine.**

**Broken**

**Chloe POV**

The next morning when I woke up Derek was gone. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I sat up and looked around.

"Derek?" I twisted around trying to see if he was in the alley and saw Simon sitting a few feet away from me.

"Morning sunshine." he said flashing me a smile.

"Oh. H-hi. I mean, good morning."

"Since Derek was feeling better this morning he went on the tortuously long walk to get us some food."

"Oh." All the events of the previous night came rushing back to me as my brain finally woke up. "Simon" I said trying to give him my best serious look. "Why didn't you tell me about Derek?"

A slight tic worked in his jaw. It was nothing like one of Derek's angry tics. For Simon, I think it meant he was thinking something over.

"It wasn't my place to tell you, Chloe. It was Derek's and Derek's alone."

"Oh. Okay, that makes sense."

"To be honest though I'm surprised he told you. You guys weren't all that chatty with each other last night."

"Not while you were awake."

He gaped and I realized how what I said must have sounded to Simon.

"I mean, we talked while you slept. Like two friends, you know?"

Simon gave me a peculiar look before shrugging and saying "Oh. Derek actually opened up to you?"

I bit my lip. I was going to say Derek didn't tell me. That I had figured it out on my own when I saw him during his Change last night, but then I thought better of it. Just like it was Derek's place to tell me what he was, it was his place to tell Simon about his Changes. Even if Simon already had an idea that it was happening.

So I nodded instead.

Simon just made a 'huh' sound then scooted closer to me.

It occurred to me that whenever we were alone this is what would happen. Simon would instigate something minor, nothing bad of course. But he would ask me something or bring something up about Derek and after a few minutes of basic conversation we would lapse into silence. By the end of that silence he would end up close to me, usually with an arm wrapped around me or his fingers laced through mine.

I could already see this situation heading in that direction. I had the inclination to stand and stretch my legs before that happened but at the same time I realized that if I moved I would lose the small amount of heat Simon offered by sitting so close.

_He's not as warm as Derek._

Where did that come from? My subconscious was picking the absolute worst times to bring all these points up.

I bit my lip and stole a glance at Simon, who was checking his watch, and instantly began making a T-chart in my head. The left side being things about Simon I liked and the right side being things about Derek that I-

I jumped up and began pacing.

Simon stood slowly and stared at me like I had completely lost any sense that I had ever had. The look also reminded me of a small child staring at a tiger or panther that's trapped in its cage at the zoo.

I was that feral cat.

"Are you okay?"

"Sure." I laughed nervously.

He cocked his head to the side and opened his mouth to speak at the same time I cleared my throat.

"When did Derek leave?"

He paused, forehead wrinkling in confusion before he checked his watch. "About half an hour ago."

"So he should be back soon right?"

"If you want to call another half hour soon, sure." He took a step closer to me. "What's wrong with you? I knew you were jumpy but you aren't acting like yourself."

"I'm fine." Catching the disbelief in his look I added, "Honestly."

His facial expression changed a multitude of times as he seemed to be thinking something over. He didn't say anything else after that. But that left me to pace in silence and for once I wish that silence was deafening, making it impossible for me to think of anything else.

Too bad I didn't get that wish.

I had almost said the other side of that chart was what I liked about Derek and the more I paced and the more I thought about it, I wondered if I meant as a friend or as something more.

That thought had me turning back to look at Simon.

Simon's a cute guy. But more like that everyday kind of cute. The kind of cute that I saw all the time at school. Derek's different, in more ways than one. For starters, his green eyes are beguiling and riveting. A vibrant shade of emerald green that reminded me, for some strange reason, of a forest on a sunny day. And Derek's an interesting person. Now, whether I thought this because he's so smart and easy to talk to, once you got him to talk that is, or because there was something about him that held my interest almost all the time, I couldn't say.

But there were times when he infuriated me. When he was in a horrible mood, he took it out on other people. More specifically, me. I'm not his worn out old toy that he could chew on whenever he decided to act like an angry, abused pup.

My thoughts pedaled back and forth between the nice guy Derek could be and the guy he was every other time I tried to talk to him. Eventually I got so angry at myself and my inability to come to a clear end to these thoughts about Derek, this situation and Derek's ever changing mood I threw my hand out, accidentally smacking it on the wall next to me.

"Ow!" I yelped.

"Chloe, what did you do?" After I got past the pain shooting through my hand, I realized that it wasn't Simon who had said that.

I swallowed, licked my dry lips then looked up into Derek's eyes. There I saw his mild irritation and also his concern. But the rest of his face remained stoic, as if he didn't really want me to see how he was feeling. But I could. And because of this I began to wonder why he was irritated.

At the same time, another thought hit me. Did I really just spend the last half hour thinking about Derek?

Derek snapped his fingers in front of my face. "What happened?"

Simon, apparently seeing that I seemed to be unable to speak, replied for me. "She only hit her hand. Chill Derek."

Derek set the brown bag he was holding down on the ground. I didn't even notice he had been carrying it. He held his hand out, telling me to let him see my hand without even speaking.

I obeyed and was immediately surprised by how gingerly he held my hand. He turned my hand over so he could look at my knuckles. They were red and slightly swollen.

"They'll probably be bruised shortly." He said glancing at my face then he looked back to my hand and mumbled. "Damn…are you trying to get yourself killed? Too many accidents."

I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or himself but since I barely heard him I figured he was talking to himself so I didn't say anything.

Derek sighed and let my hand fall. For the rest of the morning he was even more introverted than usual.

And I hated it. It wasn't like he was all that chatty to start with but I think what was really annoying me about his silence was the fact that I couldn't figure out the source of his frustration. Was it me? If so, what did I do to deserve that unwarranted emotion? If it's because of me hitting my hand he might as well just wrap me in some bubble wrap and stick me in a Chloe sized box filled with packing peanuts and pull me along with string because I'm just that clumsy.

Derek led us for a little over an hour until he stopped in front of a community sized public library.

"We've got a few things we talked about earlier this morning that we need to look up." Derek said to me. The 'we' he was referring to was him and Simon. My thoughts were proven when he gave me the direct 'order', "You can look up whatever you want until we're done."

"Nice to know I can be useful." I grumbled following them into the library. Derek had paused when I said that but he made no comment.

Simon and Derek went off in two different directions leaving me to stand on my own, looking like a total idiot in a place full of knowledge. I took off after Derek because I had a major bone to pick with him and his attitude.

He'd gone to the very back of the library, into a room with five computers and, thankfully, a door that closed just incase we got a little too loud for the library. I decided to close it early, just incase.

"What are you doing?" He asked dropping into one of the chair turning on the computer there.

"Finding out why you are being such an- an-"

"An ass? Is that the word you were looking for?"

I growled in frustration.

"I already told you that you weren't really cut out for this. This isn't really the proper life for you."

"Bull! Derek, the fact that I'm a necromancer automatically makes me a part of this life and this weird wild goose chase you are leading us on."

He shot out of his chair and stood toe to toe with me, glowering.

His presence was overpowering and an odd fear set in. I knew Derek wouldn't hurt me but in this situation my flight response was winning out over the fight response. Derek was a little over a foot taller than me and a lot wider and stronger. He was just too overpowering. And I think he knew it. The question was, what would he do with that knowledge?

"We aren't going off on some wild goose chase Chloe. Damn it, if I'd known you were going to cause so much trouble for us I would have personally dragged you back to that school and forced you to stay there."

I gave him a disgusted look. "Don't act so high and mighty with me." I poked his chest. "If you would kindly inform me of what is really going on here then I would try and cooperate more with you."

He started to speak but I cut him off with another thought.

"No, never mind. I can't cooperate with you. You don't give me a chance to. All you do is try to verbally rip me a new one every chance you get!"

"I do not!"

I placed my hands on my hips. "Yes you do! I could get a paper cut and you would find some reason to yell at me for it."

"Exactly. You are too clumsy to roam around the streets with us."

"What? You can't be serious! How about you catch me the next time I fall or-"

"Actually take the bullet for you?"

"What? Where did that come from?"

And then I realized something. Derek wasn't mad at _me. _He was mad at himself for not being able to keep me safe from everything so far. I wasn't sure whether I should've been angry or touched.

"Derek, you can't keep me safe from everything."

He looked away, a tic working in his jaw. I noticed that he didn't step away from me though.

I held up my bruised hand. "This was completely my fault." I said trying to find some way to comfort him.

The door cracked open and for a moment I thought that one of the library staff was coming to see what was going on. The room we were in was all windows, making it easier to see out into the library and making it easier for someone out there to see in here.

But it was Simon at the door

"Are you two alright? You looked like you were about to kill each other a few seconds ago."

I nodded. "We're fine."

Simon pointed to Derek, whose back was to the door so he didn't see Simon's action.

I shrugged.

"Derek, are-" Simon started.

"We're fine." He growled.

Simon's eyes widened a degree and he held his hands up in surrender. "I think we should come back later. When we won't attract so much attention. Let me go put the books I got out away and we can go."

Derek only nodded. I wasn't entirely sure he agreed but it was the easiest plan for now considering neither of us seemed up to being all that quiet. Simon smiled apologetically at me and closed the door again.

"The injury to your shoulder wasn't your fault though. It was mine."

"Yours? Is it your fault that those people shot at us? And don't you dare answer that because I know you will find some way to blame it on yourself."

"But I pushed you into the wall." He said. He wouldn't look me in the eyes.

"To save my life Derek. I would much rather have a bruised shoulder than a fatal gunshot wound."

"But _I _hurt you Chloe."

"By trying to _save _me. What the heck happened to you that you think this bruise-" I touched my shoulder and held back a wince. Honestly it still hurt because I did hit that wall pretty hard. I wouldn't tell him that because honestly this isn't so bad compared to being…well, dead. "Is such a bad thing?"

"I need to tell you everything I know about the reason we seem to be running around blindly in New York State. But I'd really prefer to find my dad and let him explain because he knows so much more about the situation than me. But there's something else I need to tell you about."

"Just say it and tell me everything else you know too."

Derek looked away from me. He had that faraway, lost child look in his eyes again, the same look as last night, and I felt bad for bringing this up.

"Whatever happened Derek, you don't have to tell me. Just tell me about everything else." I said softly.

"No, Chloe. I want to tell you this…I need to. And I need to tell you now, before Simon comes back. It might change your opinion of me and make you regret coming with us though. That's why I'm having such a hard time with it."

I blinked at his confession. That was such an unlikely thing for Derek to say that it caught me by surprise.

"Derek, please." I wanted to tell him that whatever he was going to tell me wouldn't change my opinion of him, that I just had this odd compulsion to know all the details about his life but it wouldn't matter what I said to him and the second part would probably sound a little creepy. I even found it odd. But, he would still find it difficult to say whatever he needed to say to me.

"Chloe, I've hurt people."

I cocked my head and looked at him with a confused expression. "Do you mean those people in the alley? Because they really needed a good butt kicking."

He shook his head. "Not what I meant."

"Oh. Well, then what did you mean?"

"I meant that I've hurt another kid. I broke their back Chloe. Do you understand now?"

I looked up at his face and saw the shame and panic in his eyes. I knew why I saw shame there. But…the panic must have been because he was afraid of my reaction. For some strange reason the song Savin' Me by Nickelback starting playing in my head.

I knew Derek wouldn't hurt someone for no reason. "What did he do?"

"He was with two of his friends and they were bothering Simon. Threatening him and-"

"I don't need to hear anymore." I said interrupting him. He wouldn't believe me if I told him that he wouldn't have even been near them if he didn't feel that someone he cared for was in danger. He wouldn't even listen simply because he felt like he was a monster for it. But he was protecting Simon.

Even looking at it from his point of view, I still came back to the fact that he was protecting his brother but for him, that meant harboring this horrible guilt.

Before Derek, or even myself, knew what was happening I had wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him. I think that Derek was more shocked by my actions but I was in a pretty close second. And I instantly regretted hugging him when he relaxed and awkwardly hugged me back. My stomach was in knots, my heart seemed to be beating in my throat instead of my chest and an odd urge to be the salve to his wounded soul surfaced.

I swallowed past the lump in my throat and pulled away from him. I looked up at his face in an attempt to try and see some semblance of emotion but he looked about as confused as I felt inside.

Just what did I feel for Derek?

I didn't have much time to ponder that though since Simon opened the door and poked his head in. "You two ready?" He looked at us and I _know _he saw us hugging, how could he have not seen us. But to his credit he didn't say anything.

Then again, it's not like it would have mattered. People hug all the time so-

I stopped that thought before I took it farther than my confused mind should have to go at the moment.

Derek sighed and turned to face Simon. There seemed to be a strange haunted peace to him now. Like he still was hurting, still feeling guilty but…he didn't look as haunted by his past and he carried himself just a little bit differently.

"We can search for contacts tomorrow but let's look for dad a little more today." He said, and then he led us out of the library.

We searched, looking through phone books and old directories of all kinds for a few more hours before lunch. The rest of the day continued the same way and Derek even tried to get me to help more. It was strange but I felt like I fit in more with them by the end of the day. I was very happy for that.

I wasn't happy, however, that Derek seemed to keep his distance from me when he wasn't telling me to do something.

**Chapter 9 Preview**

"Derek?" I asked walking up behind him and away from Simon. "I don't mean to be annoying or anything but I'd really like a shower and maybe a bed for tonight."

He stopped and looked down at me before he dug some money out of his backpack and counted it. Then he nodded at me and offered me a small smile that only I noticed, mostly because Simon was staring across the street.

"What are you looking at?" I asked turning around.

"That man over there." He turned to Derek. "Have you noticed if he's been following us?"

Derek glanced across the street. "I was hoping I was wrong, but apparently I'm not. Yes, I noticed."

"So what do we do?" I asked. I didn't even have the whole question out before Derek stuffed his money back into his backpack and jogged across the street.

I barely had time to take another breath before a fight broke out between the two of them. But Derek didn't start the fight, our mystery guest did.

**I don't remember how many of you remember the very first authors note to this story but Derek breaking that kids back was mentioned there and I knew it was going to come up later I just wasn't sure when so…yeah.**

**Okay…so I hope that everyone liked the chapter. If not…well, sorry. There is nothing I can do about that since I am not the most fabulous of authors.**

**Reviews would be nice…pwease? I know it's been forever and a day since I updated but please review. I'm hoping for ten and this could be a ridiculous hope since it's been a while but I'm gonna stick with that.**

**(=^_^=)**


	9. Trust

**Three reviews…I want to thank DreamDark, suzi1811, and burning for reviewing. But the rest of you…I love you guys and I love that you are reading…but is smiley face hard…good grief. I know it's been a long time since I had updated but come on! **

**The only reason I even have an update here is because I said I would. If I had not have mentioned that to some people, I probably wouldn't be updating just from the sheer lack of reviews. That makes me depressed. Therefore I don't feel the need to continue the story.**

**Some of you were wondering if I was abandoning you all or if I was giving up on the story after chapter six/seven, now I'm wondering if you guys are giving up on me. **

**Disclaimer: DP= Kelley Armstrong…my crap ideas= obviously, mine. Sucks for you guys huh?**

**Trust**

**Chloe POV**

By the end of the day I was exhausted. I'm sure Simon and Derek were too. Though, they were troopers and didn't dare show that they were tired. In a way, I almost felt guilty that I was trudging behind them.

We had just left an abandoned apartment building. Simon, Derek and I had all had hope that that building would've held some sort of clue in it or that one of their dad's friends would still live there.

But it was quite obvious that no one had lived in that building for a long time. It seemed that the trail leading to their father, or an ally of some sort, was getting colder every single day.

"Derek, I don't understand how we aren't able to find him. It wasn't _that_ long ago that he disappeared."

Simon and Derek had been walking ahead of me for the past ten minutes and I could tell from the tone of their voices, they were arguing over something. I had a hunch that that something was why we are unable to find their dad. Their missing father, my missing friends, the danger of the situation looming right in front of us…all of this was beginning to wear all of our nerves thin.

"I know. It's only been a few days but it seems that he's just disappeared off the face of the earth. Of course we'll still look for him but we may need to expand our search areas a bit."

Simon sighed. "I know. But we can't give up."

"And we won't."

As I looked at them I realized they had everything in their family that I could only hope for in mine. Their world was falling apart but those two would walk through hell and then some to get their dad back. My dad was rarely around and when he was, we didn't act too much like a family. It was difficult for him since my mom died; at least that's what I was guessing. I couldn't really go on old memories versus new ones because I didn't really have any old memories of my dad. They were all new ones. Ones from after my mother's death.

My aunt Lauren was no better.

"Chloe." Simon said in a singsong voice.

I looked over at him startled. I was so occupied with my own thoughts that I hadn't even noticed that they had stopped talking or that Simon had dropped back to walk beside me. "What?"

"What's got you so occupied?"

"Nothing really. I was just thinking." I said quickly.

"Oh. Then by all means, continue thinking." He said with a smile on his face.

I nodded and tried to smile but I couldn't force one.

We walked along in silence for about ten minutes. The whole time I was watching Derek. He kept tilting his head to the side and when he would turn his head I noticed his nostrils flaring. I wasn't sure why but I wasn't going to question it. He would tell us what he was noticing when he was good and ready.

Next to me, Simon was glancing around too. Since he didn't have superhuman senses, if Simon was noticing something was wrong then there really must have been a problem.

When he noticed me watching him, Simon smiled and turned back to me. These two were the 'survival' experts so to speak, so I didn't question why neither of them were informing me of their worries. But, their behavior was setting me on edge.

Simon slipped his backpack off then pulled out his sketch pad and a pencil. We seemed to have fallen into a pattern like this. Whenever Simon had something to say that he didn't want Derek to hear he would write it down and hand me the paper and pencil for a reply.

"_So, I'm thinking we try and find a hotel for tonight. Warm beds and plumbing, complementary breakfast in the morning?"_

I smiled and shook my head before writing my reply. "_Why couldn't you just ask Derek this?"_

He shrugged. _"He'll listen to you for sure."_

I gave him a puzzled look before grabbing the pad and writing my answer. _"How do you know that? You're his brother and you've known him for a lot longer than me. Why would he care about my wants before yours?"_

"_Just trust me on this. Yeah, I know he's my bro and would move the earth itself to keep me safe but,"_

I watched as he scribbled his reply on the paper. I didn't even bother letting him finished writing it. He seemed so convinced that Derek would listen to me so I decided to put his theory to the test.

"Derek?" I asked walking up behind him and away from Simon. "I don't mean to be annoying or anything but I'd really like a shower and maybe a bed for tonight."

He stopped and looked down at me before he dug some money out of his backpack and counted it. Then he nodded at me and offered me a small smile that only I noticed, mostly because Simon was staring across the street.

"What are you looking at?" I asked turning around.

"That man over there." He turned to Derek. "Have you noticed if he's been following us?"

Derek glanced across the street. "I was hoping I was wrong, but apparently I'm not. Yes, I noticed."

"So what do we do?" I asked. I didn't even have the whole question out before Derek stuffed his money back into his backpack and jogged across the street.

I barely had time to take another breath before a fight broke out between the two of them. But Derek didn't start the fight, our mystery guest did.

So that was what both of them had been noticing? Why didn't either one of them say anything!

Simon and I ran across the street after Derek.

Our mystery 'friend' blasted Derek with spell of some sort before returning to fighting hand to hand. Derek made a noise, something odd between a hiss and a growl, when he was blasted but he didn't seem to react otherwise.

I watched as Simon tried to help his brother fend off this sorcerer. That was the only thing I concluded he could be. He certainly wasn't a normal human being.

But as I stood there, I felt completely useless. What could I do to help them? I didn't see anything I could use as a weapon and my so called powers weren't worth too much in a situation like this.

"Hey!"

I turned to the direction of the person who had just yelled.

There was a girl running towards us. She looked to be around our age, probably older than me but not too much older than Derek. If she was at all. Her russet colored hair was long and extremely curly and she was a bit underdressed for the weather. Where we were wearing sweatshirts and jeans she had on shorts and a green tee shirt. There was something about this girl that set me on edge. Something about her wasn't quite right, besides the fact that she had to be crazy to be wearing shorts.

When she came to a stop next to me, I noticed she was carrying a thin metal pipe in her right hand. "Need some help?" She asked with a grin.

I stood there staring at the newcomer. Where did she come from and who was she?

Her smiled faltered before she shrugged. "I guess that's a yes."

Before I could even blink, she was right behind the sorcerer, swinging the pipe and aiming for his head.

I cringed as I heard the crack of the metal against his skull. The pipe the girl was carrying dropped to the sidewalk. Derek and Simon, after watching the sorcerer fall to the ground, surprisingly still conscious but moaning about the pain in his head, turned to face me, confusion etched onto both of their faces.

The girl was gone.

I didn't have time to linger on that thought though.

"What just happened?" Simon asked as Derek stared down at the man writhing in pain.

I recognized the look on his face. Remorse. He didn't even do anything to this man and he felt bad over this.

"I'm…well, I'm not really sure." I said quietly as I walked over to Derek. I placed a hand on his arm and he tore his gaze away from the now semi-quiet man. "You okay?"

He nodded.

"God, what did you three do to me?"

Our conversation quickly forgotten, we turned to the sorcerer, who was glaring at us with red rimmed eyes. He was still holding his head, rubbing the spot where he was hit.

"We didn't do anything to you. Well, not really." Simon said. "You attacked us after all."

"Yeah," the sorcerer groaned, "But which one of you whacked me over the head with that?" he asked waving his hand in the direction of the pipe.

"Wasn't me or Derek, for that matter." They all looked to me.

"I was just standing here." I said quickly, "But there was a girl-"

"A girl?" They all said simultaneously

I nodded.

"You're the necromancer." It wasn't a question but a statement of fact.

"Chloe, was the girl a ghost?" Derek asked. All their eyes were on me and I felt like a freak even though there was no reason for me to feel that way.

"I guess…she looked real enough but there was something odd about her. And she disappeared after she hit you."

"Well then, whoever this girl was, she was probably a ghost. Congratulations on realizing that, what's your name? Chloe?" The sorcerer sneered at me, sarcasm heavy in his tone.

That tone and his condescending words…they made me feel horrible. I had just discovered I was a necromancer a few days ago. How was I to know who was alive and who wasn't? I didn't even know the extent of my powers yet.

The sorcerer glanced from Simon to Derek and then back to me. His expression softened a bit. I think he realized that he'd hurt me in some way.

"Look, I'm sorry. I know this must be hard for all of you."

Was he trying to sympathize with us? If so, I didn't really want his sympathy. I'd already made the assumption that he was someone relating to the disappearance of Simon and Derek's father. The fact that he knew what I was was just a step closer to confirming that belief. Why would I want sympathy from someone who had probably helped to royally screw up my friend's lives?

"So, let's just forget this ever happened. Cool with you guys?" he asked.

"What?" Derek asked incredulously.

"You heard me. Let's forget this happened. You go on your way and I'll go on mine, pretending I never say you guys. Plus…you three are a force to be reckoned with. I'd really rather _not_ have my ass kicked again."

"Who are you?" Simon asked. "And where exactly did you come from?"

"Thomas Gaston." he said standing. He staggered, as if he was still slightly off balance. "I work for the Edison Group. I know you don't know-" he paused and pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. It was vibrating, indicating he had an incoming call. "I have to take this."

Thomas turned his back to us and I turned to face Derek.

"So, what do you think about this situation?"

"I don't know. He just raised a lot more questions than I have answers for."

I didn't like the sound of that.

"Do you trust him? Believe in the truce he just called?"

"Not at all."

"So what do we do?"

"Trust him for now." Simon said turning to us.

"Why?" Derek said staring at his brother as if he'd grown a second head. I couldn't blame him. We had just learned this guy was working for the bad guy. Though none of us actually knew what the Edison Group was, it was quite clear that they weren't on our side. Why should we trust someone who was probably sent out to track us and give away our location?

"If you two had been listening to his call instead of talking you would have heard the same thing I just did."

"Care to elaborate?" Derek asked.

"He just told whoever he's talking to that he hasn't seen us. Instead of saying that we're standing five feet away from him."

"Oh. So, I vote we trust him too." I said. I tried to make myself sound as confident in that decision as possible. But even I noticed the uncertainty in my voice. "At least for now."

I looked to Derek and watched the indecision play across his face.

I knew he didn't _want _to trust someone who had, not even five minutes ago, been fighting with him. He didn't want to trust someone who was working for the group that seemed to have a hand in his dad's disappearance. He didn't want to trust this guy because he didn't know anything about him.

But I think Derek came to the conclusion that we didn't have much choice.

In the end, if we got captured we would know who to blame. I didn't find much comfort in that though.

"For now." Derek mumbled.

Thomas turned to us, stuffing his phone back into his pocket. "I need to go. Whether you believe me or not, it was nice to actually meet you guys. Put faces with names I've come to know so well."

"You do realize we are really confused and don't _actually _have much faith in your word, right?" Simon asked.

"I'm sure. And as much as I would like to sit here and explain everything I need to get back to headquarters so I can get scolded for not being able to keep up with you guys."

"You're actually not going to say anything about this?" I asked. My voice sounded high pitched and my disbelief was evident.

"No. See…this is all very complicated. For the past few years I've been following orders, no matter how gruesome the outcome of that order would be. But lately, my morals have been nagging at me and I've come to question everything they are doing. And I've been questioning my orders."

"Yet you still attacked me." Derek accused.

"Sorry about that," He shrugged. "Old habits die hard I guess. But it's different to hear about someone versus meeting them and seeing how they are…I can't bring you guys to them because I don't know what would happen to you if I did."

"You do realize we're still pretty confused right?" Simon asked shifting anxiously from one foot to another.

"I apologize for that. I really do need to go now though." He turned to leave us. "One more thing though. Your dad, he isn't at our headquarters, if you ever figured out where that is. So, don't bother coming by to try and find him. It probably wouldn't end well for you."

The relief on their faces was tangible. At least their dad wasn't being held captive by these people.

"But…what about my friends?"

"Your friends?"

"Liz, Tori and Rae."

He thought for a moment. "As of right now, they are all still alive. But there are plans being made for them."

"What kind of plans?"

"I'm not really sure. I'm sorry, really. I don't know anything until I'm asked to carry out an order. Now, goodbye."

We all stood there, completely speechless, watching him walk away.

He'd just dumped so much information on us and we still didn't know very much about what was going on.

At least, if he was telling the truth, we found a new ally. I just hoped that we hadn't given our trust over to the wrong person.

* * *

Later that night we had checked into a hotel…I couldn't actually believe Derek had agreed to this but I was elated over it. The bed, though not the most comfortable thing I'd ever slept on was so much better than the streets we'd been on the past couple days.

We each took a shower, only using a minimal amount of the complementary shampoo and conditioner so each of us would have enough.

After my shower I felt one hundred percent better even though I was still concerned about whether Thomas would turn us in. I was also concerned about what my aunt Lauren and my dad probably thought had happened to me. When I left with Simon and Derek it didn't even occur to me what they would think had happened.

So, here I was, sitting outside our hotel room thinking about every little thing that had gone wrong so far or everything that could potentially go wrong from here on out.

"Hey hon, you okay?" The voice sounded familiar and it wasn't until I looked up that I realized that it was the girl from earlier.

"Who are you?"

"You know, you didn't answer my question. But…I guess I can answer yours first. I'm Amy Lynn. I would shake you hand or something but I think my hand would just pass right through yours." she shrugged. "Such is life. Now, are you going to answer my question or not?"

"Not."

"Well…that's a bummer." She sat down in front of me.

"What do you want exactly and how did you find me? Or more importantly where did you come from?"

"Girly, you glow. You kind of stand out to me. But…I overheard your friends talking about you-"

"My friends? You mean like Liz, Tori and Rae?"

"Sure? Blond hair, black hair and copper? I want to say her hair was kind of a copper color but-"

"That's them."

"Okay, well, I overheard them talking to each other in the Edison Group headquarters. They were talking about you…and then I overheard some of the higher ups talking about a necromancer, someone they wanted to obtain, along with a sorcerer and a werewolf."

"So that would be me, Simon and Derek?"

She nodded. "But I wanted to try and find you so I started in the last place they saw you and meandered around until I found you. Of course you were in trouble so I wanted to help."

"Oh, thanks for that by the way."

She nodded. "No problem."

"So, how did you end up in the Edison Group headquarters?"

"I was brought there. Unfortunately I wasn't as lucky as your friends. The EG decided to terminate me and-"

"Wait, what?"

"They decided to terminate me. We're all experiments. Your friends there, you, the two guys you're traveling with and moi."

"Experiments? What are you talking about?"

"Okay. See, these crazy people decided that they were going to try and genetically modify some supernaturals. It started in utero and, well you can see how we all turned out."

"So what kind of supernatural are you? And what are Liz, Rae and Tori?"

"I'm a Volo half demon. As for your friends…I'm sorry, I wasn't really paying attention to what they were so I don't know."

"This is all a tad insane."

"A tad?" She laughed. "I think it's completely crazy and yet I know what I'm telling you is the truth. But I don't have all the details so I can't really say anymore. Don't want to give you false information you know."

"Yeah…I've had so much information dumped on me today I'm not sure I would be able to handle anymore anyway."

"Guess it works out for the best huh?"

"Sure." I grumbled.

"You should try and be happy. I mean, look at me. I'm dead but you don't see me complaining about it. Make the most of this um…adventure." She was grinning and I wasn't sure if I should return the smile or call her crazy.

The door to our room opened and Derek poked his head out. "You really should consider going to sleep soon. You get the other bed and I'm taking the couch."

Amy let out a low whistle as she looked up at Derek. "Werewolf. Definitely. I can see it. Dude's huge."

I stared at Amy for a moment before deciding that I should just ignore her comment. I turned to Derek. "I can take the couch. I would probably fit on it better than you considering I'm so small."

He stared at me, an odd expression on his face before he shook his head. "It's okay." Then he disappeared back into the room.

"Guess I should let you go huh? But, tomorrow I want to talk to you again."

"Go for it. It's not like I'm going to turn you away."

She beamed, giggled then disappeared.

I wasn't really sure what I should be thinking where Amy was concerned. She seemed at bit scatterbrained but at the same time she was able to tell me more about what the Edison Group was and what they did. Way more than Thomas was able to tell me. And he was a living, breathing, full functioning member of the group.

Sighing, I pulled myself up off the ground and went into the hotel room to get some sleep.

* * *

**Chapter 10 Preview**

"So, which one do you like?" Amy asked grinning like a kid who just learned the newest piece of juicy gossip. Unfortunately, that gossip involved me.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on! I know you know what I'm talking about. Simon? Or Derek?"

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**Quick question. How many people would be kind of bummed if I just stopped writing all together or if I quit working on my stories and just did one-shots instead? I'm considering it because I just don't feel like writing anything I have to put much thought into anymore. One-shots are pretty simple…**

**So, review. Or don't. I could care less anymore.**

**(=^_^=)**

**P.S. I might have some other updates done sometime this weekend…not sure about that though. Trying to make two rabbit sales this weekend and we have babies due Sunday and there is a lot of prep involved in that. Plus…I'd like to turn into less of a hypocrite and start reading some of the DP stories since a couple of the newer ones have piqued my interest.**


	10. Confusion

**I hadn't realized the last time I updated this story it was October. That's bad…very bad. I sincerely apologize. After some consideration, I decided not to quit writing this one and then I never had anything for an update. Bad author, bad! It's been so long I had to reread my own story…pathetic.**

**Hopefully there are still some people around to read this update. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: DP belongs to Kelley Armstrong. Duh.**

**Confusion**

**Chloe POV **

"Chloe, it's time to get up. We have to get moving again."

Someone's voice was invading my semi-peaceful sleep. I was debating on throwing my pillow at them or just groaning and rolling over to go back to sleep when they spoke again and I realized it was Simon trying to talk to me.

"Come on, Chloe. Derek went to grab us something to eat and he's expecting you to be up when he gets back so we can leave. If you don't hurry I'm just going to roll you onto the floor."

"Alright Simon. I'm up, I'm up." I said, my voice thick because I'd be rudely awakened before I was ready to get up. My mind was a bit foggy and my vision a bit hazy because I wasn't really awake. I could just as easily go back to sleep if I were to be left alone for a little.

"Maybe getting a hotel last night was a mistake. We all had trouble pulling ourselves out of bed this morning. Probably because we've been sleeping in alleys for a couple days."

"A bed was a nice change but you're probably right." I said sliding out of bed. Simon held up my backpack and offered it to me just as the door to our room opened. Derek stood there with a Styrofoam plate of food.

"Hotels don't make breakfast easy to take with you." he grumbled staring at the plate before closing the door.

"Well, we could take what we can carry and leave the rest." Simon suggested reaching for a piece of fruit.

"No. Eat what you can in five minutes. I grabbed some extra stuff and put it in my bag for later. Thankfully there is practically no one here to notice that I was taking a lot of food." Derek grabbed a bagel and a muffin and went back outside. Before closing the door he turned to Simon and I. "Hurry up," and with that he closed the door.

"Bossy, isn't he?" Simon said grinning.

I nodded. "Sometimes."

Simon grabbed a muffin, handed it to me and sat down on the bed I slept in the previous night. He patted the area to his left in an invitation to sit with him. "Can we talk?"

"Um, sure? About what?"

"I don't know. Anything? Like the fact that I'm sorry we drug you along with us."

"Well, don't be. This has been a different experience for me but I'm trying to learn more about what I am and I'm trying to help you guys anyway I can."

"You shouldn't have to help with our problems."

"It's not just your problem because all of the recent events are connected. Plus, according to Amy, they have my friends locked up and I want to try to rescue them. I can't do that alone and you guys shouldn't have to try to find your dad on your own. If all three of us can work together maybe we can accomplish both our goals."

Simon got a faraway look in his eyes then he chuckled and smiled, almost to himself. "I knew I liked you for a reason."

Before I could even think of anything to respond with, Derek opened the door to our room and stuck his head inside. "Five minutes is up. Let's go."

After a few hours of walking, payphone telephone book scouring and general irritation at getting no where, Derek decided it was time to take a short break. He pulled Simon aside and left me standing in the mouth of an alley while they talked in hushed voices further into the alley.

I wanted to know what was so important they couldn't share it with me but I knew if I tried to inch closer, Derek would notice immediately. I wouldn't learn anything that way and that action would only irritate Derek further.

Amy appeared beside me with a grin on her face. "How are you doing today?" She noticed the scowl on my face and frowned. "Not to well I see. What's bugging you?"

"Those two," I said waving my hand in Simon and Derek's general direction. "They are starting to annoy me with their secrecy. And they are still acting like I shouldn't be here with them. Like I would be better off if I'd stayed home."

"Well, maybe you would have been. Or maybe they just don't want you to be hurt. They both care about you a lot Chloe. That much is obvious."

"Maybe Simon does, but Derek doesn't care that much."

"He cares more than you know. Probably more than you care to think about."

"And how do you know that?"

"I'm around even when you don't notice me. You might not pay much attention to the way either of them look at you but I do."

"You've only been around us for a day," I said angling myself away from her. I glanced at Simon and Derek and wondered if there was any truth to what she was saying. I didn't want to think about it, but since Amy brought it up, my mind was now whirring with possibilities.

"I've learned a lot from you guys in a day."

"Right, of course you have."

She smiled. "I have. I've learned a few things about you too."

A mild sense of dread filled me and I turned back to her. "Like what?"

"Like that there is some part of you that cares for both of them on something other than a friendly level."

I didn't answer her.

"So, which one do you like?" Amy asked grinning like a kid who just learned the newest piece of juicy gossip. Unfortunately, that gossip involved me.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on! I know you know what I'm talking about. Simon? Or Derek? We were just discussing this Chloe. You don't seem like the flakey type to me."

"That's none of your business."

"Ah-ha! So you do like one of them, don't you?"

I pursed my lips and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Oh, I've gone too far again. Even when I was alive I had no shame. Seems to have continued into death as well. Oops. I'll talk to you later Chloe. Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or anything like that."

Sighing, I closed my eyes and rested my head against the brick wall beside me. When I opened my eyes again, Amy was gone.

A few minutes later, Derek and Simon stopped their hushed argument and Derek led us away from the alley we had been in.

"So, where are we going?" I asked trying my best to keep up with them. But, I was having trouble because they moved too quickly when they were irritated. I sighed and followed them without another word until my legs couldn't take moving so quickly anymore.

"Okay, this is stupid. Both of you stop moving!" I yelled. Simon stopped and turned to me, a look of shock on his face. Derek slowed but didn't stop and he didn't even look my way.

I growled low in my throat. I was so frustrated with these two at the moment. I rushed ahead and grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop. He turned on me so fast I almost lost my balance. He grabbed my free arm so I wouldn't fall. We stood there motionless for what seemed like an hour but it was really only a few seconds. He was holding onto my arms and I was holding onto his.

We were only a few inches apart and when I glanced up at his face, my stomach twisted into knots. The look on Derek's face told me he was a little confused, a little shocked and there was something else there I couldn't put my finger on. Before I had time to think about it further, Derek pulled himself away from me. I wasn't sure why he had looked confused or shocked either. I'd never wanted to be inside his head so badly until now.

"What?" His facial expression was back to being stoic again.

I shook my head slightly before answering him. "Can we take a break please? My legs are killing me."

"Why don't we just stop then? It's not like we learned anything today that we would need to rush on ahead to check out."

"Derek, are you sure?" Simon said coming up beside me.

"Yes."

We backtracked a few blocks to an alley Derek thought would be good to stay in for the rest of the evening and into the morning. "We should be safe enough from any elements here. We'll have to take turns keeping watch though. Being safe from nature doesn't mean being safe from people," he said sliding his bag from his shoulder onto the ground.

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**Chapter 11 Preview**

"Here," Derek said pulling a green apple out of his bag. "You haven't eaten much today. I know it's not much but-"

I reached out and took the apple. "Thank you." I leaned against the alley wall then slid down to sit on the ground. He copied my actions and watched me take a bite out of the apple.

"What?" I asked.

"It's nothing," he mumbled turning his head away from me.

"Derek-" I started. But, I was cut off by Simon.

"Two suspicious people heading our way," he said jumping up from where he was sitting at the opening of the alley.

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**It's been awhile, I know. But, please review. I would really appreciate it.**


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